Eclipses : A strange phenomena [ part 2 of 2 ]

              Eclipses : A strange phenomena [ part 2 of 2 ]

                              [A blog on the universe and the cosmos above and the nature of it determined by great scientists.]

                    Hey everyone, in the last blog we discussed about Lunar eclipses, their types and the science behind their occurrence. In this blog we will be discussing about Solar eclipses. KEEP READING ........

What are Solar eclipses ?

                    Solar eclipses are the other type of eclipses we mentioned in the previous blog. The Solar eclipses take place with reference to the shadow of moon casted on Earth. The moon revolves around the earth and the earth revolves around the sun. While these celestial bodies revolve in their stationed orbits , sometimes they all come in one straight line / at an angle of 180 degrees . At such times if they are positioned such as that moon falls in between of earth and the sun , then an solar eclipse occurs. During a Solar eclipse the moon comes in between earth and sun , blocking the path of light towards the earth and casting its shadow upon it.

What makes solar eclipses so special ? 

                  You'll may think like , ok fine but we even see lunar eclipses so whats so different about solar ! What makes solar eclipses so special is that they are visible from only a limited and small region of the world. The mere reason behind this is , the moon is quite smaller as compared to earth. It also orbits far from earth due to which it seems to be even smaller from earth. Because of this the umbra [ dark portion of a shadow ] of the moon gets smaller and smaller and is focused only on a small region on the earth. On the other hand the earth is very big when compared with the size of the moon. Due to this the shadow casted by the earth is also huge and the moon many a times passes through it completely resulting into a lunar eclipse. This is the reason why we have more numbers of lunar eclipse than solar eclipses and this is what makes it more special.

Types of solar eclipses : Similar to lunar there are 3 kinds of different Solar eclipses that we experience. Namely , Total Solar eclipse, Partial solar eclipse and Annular solar eclipse

Total Solar eclipse : During a Total Solar eclipse the moon transverses between the earth and the sun and the place where its shadow falls , one can see the moon covering the entire sun-disc . This phenomena is called as the Total Solar eclipse. Because the sun's light doesn't reach at that place , there is whole darkness at the time when there should be broad sunlight. The change in behavior of other living beings such as plants and animals is quite notable at such instances.

Partial solar eclipse : During a Partial Solar eclipse , the moon is not at an perfect angle of 180 degrees with accordance to earth and sun ; but is still positioned in such an angle that it will cause an eclipse. At such times the moon does not cover the whole of the sun-disc but only a part of it. This phenomena is called as a Partial Solar eclipse. Even during this event animals and plants seem to get confused because of the sudden break in the broad daylight.

Annular Solar eclipse : Now this kind of a solar eclipse is quite rare and an amazing sight. When an annular solar eclipse is caused , one can witness a small ring around the covered sun. This happens because at very rare occassions the sun,moon and the earth allign together at 180 degrees and that too when the moon is in the apogee position [ a position in the moon's orbit when it is at its farthest from the earth ]. Because of this the moon when viewed back from earth appears to be even smaller than its usuall size , and it results in it covering a smaller portion of the sun-disc leaving a ring of the disc being uncovered. Of all the 3 types of eclipses , the Annular Solar is the most rare and awe aspiring eclipse. And we're going to witness one such rare glimpse of the sun and the moon this year on 21st March 2020 . So be sure to see it , as eclipses dont occur every now and then.

                                                   But there are a few things one must follow while observing any Solar eclipses :-

1. The ultraviolet rays emmited by the sun during Solar eclipses is very high than usuall. Always cover your eyes with a protective layer of speacial glasses espicially used for observing eclipses. Because if you don't do so then the ultraviolet rays emmited by the sun can harm your vision.

 

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2. Don't try seeing the reflection of a Solar eclipse in the water because scientits have shown through experiments that this is quite harmfull for our eyes.

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