For the second time this year, the sun is perpendicular to the Kaaba and hides its shadow

The sun was perpendicular to the Kaaba, at the time of the noon prayer in the Grand Mosque in Mecca today, Monday, in an astronomical phenomenon called the sun’s perpendicularity, which is the second and last this year 2024.

According to the Jeddah Astronomical Society, the second perpendicularity occurs when the sun returns “apparently” coming from the Tropic of Cancer heading south to the equator, and is in the middle of the meridian, and the sun becomes at an altitude of approximately (90 degrees).

The head of the association, Eng. Majed Abu Zahra, explained that the reason for the phenomenon of the sun being perpendicular to the Kaaba is due to the tilt of the Earth’s axis of rotation at an angle of 23.5 degrees, which causes the sun to move “apparently” between the Tropic of Cancer in the north and the Tropic of Capricorn in the south, passing through the equator during the Earth’s rotation around the sun once every year.

It is noteworthy that the first sun perpendicularity occurred this year 2024 when the sun appeared to move from the equator to the Tropic of Cancer last May, and it will return and be perpendicular again to the Holy Kaaba in May next year 2025.