Hum Tum

Science: Mechanics of Solar Eclipses.. Awesome Information.. Dont Miss It All solar eclipses involve the Moon passing between the Earth and the Sun, and casting a shadow on the Earth. However, the type of eclipse which can be seen from a given location depends on whether the Moon passes directly, or only partly, between the Earth and Sun; but also on where on Earth you stand to observe it, and on a number of other factors. This page attempts to explain how solar eclipses work, and the different types of solar eclipse. The diagrams here, by the way, are drawn to a wildly exaggerated scale; they can not be drawn to a real scale, because the Solar System is just too big! For example, the Sun is about 92 million miles away; but the width of the shadow of a total eclipse on the Earth might be just a few miles. A Total Eclipse: A total solar eclipse is when the Sun is completely covered by the Moon. This diagram illustrates in more detail what happens during a total eclipse: Here, the moon passes between the Earth and Sun (ie. comes to a New Moon at a point in its elliptical orbit when it is relatively close to the Earth. As it does so, it casts a shadow. The umbral part of the shadow (the umbra) is the area where the Sun is totally obscured by the Moon. During a total eclipse, the Moon is close enough to the Earth that part of the umbra falls upon the Earth; in technical terms, we say that its magnitude is greater than or equal to 1.000. People standing on those parts of the Earth, within the Umbra, see the Sun's face completely hidden by the Moon -- a total eclipse of the Sun. The beautiful part of a total eclipse, though, it what is not hidden: the Sun's faint corona, and solar prominences Partial Eclipses: A partial solar eclipse is when the Moon covers only part of the Sun, taking a "bite" out of it. Looking again at the diagram above, you will see that there is an area, outside the umbra, where the Sun is only partly covered by the Moon; this is known as the penumbra, and it covers a much larger area of the Earth than the umbra. Looking at the tip of the penumbra pointer, for example, you will notice that it can "see" the top part of the Sun, but not the bottom part; the Moon is in the way. The area of the Earth which falls within the penumbra sees a partial eclipse of the Sun. Looking at it another way, we say that a partial eclipse is an eclipse with a magnitude less than 1.000. Within the penumbra, the Sun is partly covered, and its light dimmed, to varying degrees; people within the penumbra and close to the umbra would see the Sun almost (but not quite) covered, whereas people on the edge of the penumbra would see the Moon take just a little "bite" out of the Sun, at most. During even a large partial eclipse, the remaining crescent of the Sun is so intense (actually, just as intense as on a normal, clear day) that it is not safe to look at the Sun directly, and in any case it would be impossible to see anything other than the crescent Sun. As you can see, every total eclipse is accompanied by a partial eclipse falling on a larger area of the Earth, since the umbra is always surrounded by the penumbra.. However, it is quite possible for the Moon's penumbral shadow to fall upon the Earth when the umbra misses the Earth completely, and falls away into space. When that happens, parts of the Earth see a partial eclipse, but there is no total eclipse. This happens quite often. It is important to bear in mind that when you are within a partial eclipse, the photosphere the bright part of the Sun -- is still visible. You should never look at this directly, as it is always capable of causing permanent eye damage, even when almost completely covered. The Annular Eclipse: An annular eclipse occurs when the Moon covers the centre of the Sun, but not its edges, leaving a ring (or annulus) of the Sun visible around its edges.. This image illustrates how an annular eclipse can occur: Here, the Moon in its elliptical orbit is farther from the Earth, and the umbra is too short to reach the Earth. However, the Moon is directly in front of the Sun, so the parts of the Earth underneath it see a partial eclipse where the centre of the Sun, rather than a "bite" at the side, is covered. This leaves a ring -- an annulus -- of the Sun visible round the edges of the Moon. (An annulus is the shape of a circle with its centre cut out.) Technically, this is a central eclipse with a magnitude less than 1.000. People off to one side of the eclipse track fall under the penumbra (not shown in this diagram, for simplicity), and see a normal partial eclipse. As with a partial eclipse, an annular eclipse leaves a section of the Sun's photosphere visible at all times, so again it cannot safely be viewed with the naked eye. The Hybrid Eclipse: A hybrid, or annular/total, eclipse is an eclipse which is seen as annular by some parts of the Earth, and total by others (and also as a partial eclipse over a much larger area). This image illustrates how a hybrid eclipse can occur: Here, the Moon is just far enough from the Earth that the umbra can't reach the "sides" of the Earth, so as the eclipse begins, the western portions of the Earth see an annular eclipse as the day begins. In the diagram, observers in the upper and lower parts of the eclipse track will see an annular eclipse. As the eclipse path moves on, the umbra has less far to travel to reach the Earth, and is just long enough to reach the "centre" (ie. the part most directly facing the Moon); so observers in the centre of the eclipse track see a total eclipse. Such an eclipse would have a magnitude greater than 1.000, since the magnitude given for an eclipse represents the magnitude at maximum eclipse; but during the ends of the eclipse, the magnitude is less than 1.000. People standing near, but not in, the annular/total eclipse track, would see a normal partial eclipse. With the Moon that far from the Earth, the visible total eclipse will be a pretty small eclipse -- i.e. with a narrow track, and short duration. For example, in the hybrid eclipse of April 8 2005, the total part of the eclipse was visible for 42 seconds at its maximum point, and its track was no more than 27km wide. It Goes The Wrong Way: So much for how eclipses happen -- but one question that often comes up is, why does the eclipse go from West to East, when the Sun and Moon go the other way? Well, the movement of the Moon -- from East to West -- is, in fact, an illusion caused by the Earth's rotation. As a matter of fact, the Moon orbits in the same direction that the Earth rotates; anticlockwise, as seen from above the North pole. But whereas the Earth takes just 24 hours to do one rotation, the Moon takes a month to go round the Earth (actually, the Moon takes 27.32 days to orbit the Earth). This diagram illustrates the situation -- but remember that it's not even remotely to scale! In other words, if the Earth was sitting still, the Moon would cross the sky from West to East. It would take 14 days to cross from horizon to horizon, and another 14 days to come around into view again. But the Earth doesn't sit still -- it rotates, every 24 hours, which is significantly faster than this. It's like if you're driving a car and overtake a jogger, they seem to be going backwards relative to you; the Earth rotates faster than the Moon's orbit, so the Moon seems to be going backwards, when it's actually going the same way. So what happens to "fix" things during an eclipse? Well, the Moon orbits the Earth once a month; but the distance that it travels in that month is a whopping 2,415,256km! This means that it's moving really fast. By contrast, the Earth is a tiny 12,000km across; so for the Moon to cross in front of the Earth for its shadow to cross the Earth doesn't take long at all; the Moon moves 12,000km in just 3 hours. (The exact time for the eclipse to cross the Earth depends on whether the Moon is crossing over the centre of the Earth or off-centre, and on what part of its elliptical orbit the Moon is in.) So the shadow zips across much faster than the Earth's rotation, which makes its real direction apparent. To put it another way, the Moon only has to cross a tiny part of the sky -- a small fraction of its total orbit -- for its shadow to cross the Earth completely. This means that for an eclipse, the Moon's own "real" movement is the main cause of its movement; so the shadow goes West-to-East. It Changes Direction: Astute readers have pointed out that some eclipses actually change direction -- the total eclipse of November 23, 2003, for example, goes West-East and then changes to East-West, according to the table of mapping data at NASA (Thanks, Bill Lee!) The reason for this is that this eclipse is very close to the southern end of the Earth, and in fact wraps around it -- but the "southern end of the Earth" isn't the South Pole, because the South Pole is tilted towards the Sun in November. In general, extreme northern and southern eclipses can have odd behaviour like this. The animation on the right illustrates the path of totality in this eclipse, looking down at the South Pole; the centre of the total eclipse is shown by a black cross, and the daytime side of the Earth is shown illuminated. As you can see, the path of totality moves in a straightforward way from West to East, but at an odd angle to the lines of longitude; so technically, after 22:36 UT, its longitude actually turns around and starts moving East-West. Mail is Composed and Sent by Syed Hassan Ali Group Owner and Moderator Hum-Our-Tum Group Mobile no:9885290563 Hyderabad India mail id:shayariworld@ymail.com SMS Me on 9885290563 Please provide Feedback Click here to join Hum-Our-Tum Group for Latest Breaking news and information around the world, Inspirational and Motivational mails Please join my Shayariworld and Hum-Our-Tum Group Blogs: For Non Stop Entertainment daily with Thoughts, Infotainment,Love and Friendship Quotes and Much More join and Find Yourself http://Shaayariworld.blogspot.com/   http://hum-our-tum.blogspot.com/

__._,_.___

Messages in this topic (1)

Recent Activity:

• New Members 587

You are free to forward the mails of hum-our-tum
Group to your friends and loved ones.
PLEASE note that the images / content cannot be changed / edited while forwarding them.
All rights are reserved for the  respective owners of the Emails /pictures.
No Copyright Infringement Intended  -  Personal Use Only - Not For Profit!

PLEASE :
DO NOT RIP OUR WORK APART!
DO NOT REMOVE OUR WATERMARK and Designs WHEN SHARING!
DO NOT CLAIM THEM AS YOUR OWN WORK!
THANK YOU!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
RULES OF THE GROUP:

1. COMMUNAL, ADULT STUFF AND RELATED CONTENT WILL NOT BE ENTERTAINED. Member found posting 'communal' and 'adult' stuff will be simply thrown out of the group. So be careful!

2. DO NOT SPAM OTHER MEMBERS OF THE GROUP BY POSTING UNWANTED EMAILS.

3. No Advertisements of other groups,Blogs and Websites.

4. Please write to the Owner at hum-our-tum-owner@yahoogroups.com if you have any suggestions,Criticism and Advices for Mails you want to receive from the group.

5. Need help then write to the Group Moderator at hum-our-tum-owner@yahoogroups.com

6. Inspirational,Motivational,Informative mails of the group you can read by visiting our blog at http://hum-our-tum.blogspot.com/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Choose INDIVIDUAL and TRADITIONAL setting to Enjoy our Mails.

To modify your list subscription, please send a blank email to the below adress
Then you will receive a Yahoo autoresponse asking you to confirm your request for change of sunscription.
Just hit reply  and your desired changes to the subscription will be done.                      

SUBSCRIBE          :  hum-our-tum-subscribe@yahoogroups.com     
UNSUBSCRIBE        :  hum-our-tum-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com     
INDIVIDUAL MAILS   :  hum-our-tum-normal@yahoogroups.com          
MODE TRADITIONNAL  :  hum-our-tum-traditional@yahoogroups.com
VACATION HOLD      :  hum-our-tum-nomail@yahoogroups.com  

Owner : Hassan Ali: shayariworld@ymail.com