The Surprising Geography of Solar Eclipses: Why Some Regions See More Totality

Solar eclipses aren’t evenly distributed: NASA’s 5,000-year heat map and a Time and Date study show that orbital geometry and a notable 'latitude effect' make polar regions more likely to experience total eclipses, while the overall timing of eclipses depends on long-term cycles of Earth’s orbit (aphelion/perihelion) and the Moon’s gradual recession. Annular eclipses are more frequent than total ones, and while total eclipses can occur anywhere on Earth over millennia, the interval at any given location is highly irregular—on the order of centuries—until a distant future where total eclipses end as the Moon moves farther away.