Tag: solar eclipse

Solar eclipse in pics: Mexico, parts of US witness astronomical phenomenon as it moves towards continental end

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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What to look for in the images of the solar eclipse today

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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As the Sun is bracing itself to temporarily disappear from the sky over North America today (April 8, 2024), volunteers and citizen scientists will endeavour to capture the photos of the solar eclipse fundamentally to make a deeper understanding between the Sun and the Earth.

Astronomers, physicists, eclipse chasers, skywatchers, citizen scientists are all geared up to savour and study an event that lasts for a few minutes but which can be condensed for a lifetime.

A solar eclipse happens when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, completely blocking the face of the Sun. People located in the centre of the Moon’s shadow when it hits Earth will experience a total eclipse. The solar eclipse will move through a 115-mile-path of totality across Mexico, the United States and Canada. In a total solar eclipse, one of the most fascinating phenomenon, the corona of the Sun will be visible for upto 4 minutes and 28 seconds, depending on your location. 

What to Look For 

While some are amateurs simply trying to understand the unfolding of the celestial mystery, a large number of volunteers will be participating in NASA funded science projects to study the corona, which is the outer atmosphere of the Sun.

The images and the footages could help scientists learn more about the solar corona, the sun’s outermost atmosphere like the strength of its solar winds, and how magnetic energy there is converted into heat. This kind of imaging of the corona is made possible only by the eclipse, when only the bright ring of the sun’s corona will be left visible.

The corona is the birthplace of the solar wind – a constant stream of particles and material flowing from the Sun that impacts Earth and other planets. The best time to see the full range of dynamics in the corona is during a total solar eclipse. The corona has always been one of astronomy’s biggest unsolved mystery.

The corona is a million times dimmer than the sun’s disk, which makes it difficult to see with an aid. The researchers have to rely on telescopes equipped with camera and an occulting disk, that blocks the sun’s ultra-bright face. 

The scientists will take a few months to study the data from the images collected to come to a conclusion.

Flying Fleet

A group of volunteers will be flying on an airplane to study the eclipse.

Chad Madsen, an astrophysicist from the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian., one of the scientists working on the Airborne Coronal Emission Surveyor (ACES) mission told CNBCTV18 that during the eclipse totality, the volunteers will be observing the solar corona in the infrared from the National Science Foundation/National Center for Atmospheric Research’s Gulfstream V research aeroplane.

“The airplane will fly at 14,300 meters altitude (much higher than the normal altitude of commercial aeroplanes) to avoid much of the water vapour in the atmosphere and will follow the eclipse path over the US state of Texas. ACES is a spectrometer that will search for emission lines in a little-observed infrared wavelength range.  We want to see if these emission lines could be used as physical diagnostics of the corona; particularly, we want to use these lines to measure temperatures, densities, and magnetic field strength, “Madsen said.

Treasure Trove 

The volunteers of the three NASA projects will be placed all across the eclipse path, extending through more than 90 minutes, essentially the time taken for the Moon’s shadow to cross from Mexico to Canada. The images that will be captured will be condensed into videos and movies for showing the activities in the corona. 

NASA had made similar movies in 2017 by collating the images collected but this time  an attempt will be made to make it more dynamic.

“We are studying the dynamics of the inners solar corona. We have more than 80 observation teams. I’m not sure of the exact count on volunteers.  I believe it’s over 300,” Bob Baer who leads the Dynamic Eclipse Broadcast(DEB) told CNBCTV18.

Matt Penn of Southern Illinois University in Carbondale who also leads the DEB  initiative  told CNBCTV18 that the scientific goal of the project was  measuring acceleration of coronal plasma in the inner corona. 

“In 2017 our group made the first such measurement during a total eclipse; we published our results where we showed how solar plasma accelerated from rest to a speed of about 200 km/s in the inner corona.  Our goal for 2024 is to make a similar measurement, or perhaps several, in different parts of the inner corona.”

Additionally, the volunteers will provide a near-real time broadcast of the eclipse, uploading an image from their telescopes at a cadence of once per minute to our webpage.  Our team of over 300 volunteers is looking forward to sharing our eclipse experience with people around the globe.”

Led by Amir Caspi of the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado, the Citizen Continental-America Telescopic Eclipse(CATE) 2024 project of NASA will place 35 teams in the eclipse path from Texas to Maine to capture the corona in polarised light.

‘The Citizen CATE 2024 project will study the solar corona, and specifically is looking to get information to help us answer two big questions about the Sun,” Caspi said in an interview with CNBCTV18.

Why the Sun’s Corona So Hot

Fundamentally, he said our team will try and understand why the Sun’s corona (its outermost atmosphere) is so hot. “The corona is millions of degrees Celsius, but the solar surface underneath is only about 6000 degrees Celsius.  So what is the reason why the corona is getting so much hotter.”

Caspi said his team will also try and study how is the solar wind ‘born’. The solar wind is a constant stream of energetic particles that come off the Sun into an interplanetary space, but we are still not aware about how the wind is accelerated to the speeds we see and where the structure(turbulence) in the solar wind comes from. 

CATE 2024 will use special cameras that can measure not just visible light but the polarisation of that light, kind of like having polarised sunglasses on every pixel of the camera. 

“Measuring the polarisation gives us information about the structure of the corona and how much material is there and we will have high-contrast images every 2 seconds of totality for upto an hour of totality as the eclipse shadow crosses the United States. This will allow us to study the structures in the corona and how they evolve in various lengths of time ranging from tens of seconds up to tens of minutes.”

There are 35 teams of community volunteers in the project who will be deployed all along the eclipse path from the Eagle Pass in Texas to Houlton in Maine to observe the corona during totality at each respective site.  Each team will use a uniform set of equipment provided by the project including the cameras along with telescopes, mounts, computers and other hardware. 

“We have nearly 200 participants across the whole project. Teams will take data on the computers we have supplied and will then upload them to our servers and also send a disk by mail as a backup.”

The Objectives

The long term objective is both for science—to understand the Sun’s corona—and for outreach and education—to provide a unique and valuable experience for the non-scientists, particularly those from communities that have been underrepresented in astronomy and science in general. 

“We hope that this is a transformative experience that can help to promote a lifelong love of science, potentially sparking new careers in science. And the equipment we have provided will remain in the communities to serve as a long term educational resource.”  

Led by Laura Peticolas of Sonoma State University in California, the Eclipse Megamovie project has asked the participants to capture the corona using their own DSR cameras on mounts that will track the Sun’s position in the sky during the eclipse.

The project has sent tracking mounts to more than 70 individuals who will be stationed along the eclipse path in the US and Mexico.

Eclipse Megamovie 2024(EM2024) is  funded by NASA to discover the secret lives of solar jets and plumes. Many jets and plumes seem to disappear or change from the time they are formed on the Sun and when they move out into the solar win. The photographs taken by the volunteers will identify the solar jets as they leave the Sun’s surface and solar plumes as they grow and develop.

 Predicting Pattern 

 Predictive Science, a research and product-development firm in San Diego, California had  last month released a preview of how the Sun many appear on April 8. The team   including astrophysicist Cooper Downs, used real-time satellite data of the Sun’s surface magnetic fields and intensive supercomputer simulations to make the prediction.

The firm’s prediction shows a corona composed of several spiky, spade-like structures called streamers, in which coronal plasma is tightly confined by magnetic field lines that leave the Sun’s surface but loop back  into it. Streamers glow brighter than other parts of the corona because electrons in the denser plasma scatter sunlight. 

“The Sun is near the maximum phase of the solar cycle, so the solar magnetic field is evolving rapidly. To better capture the dynamic nature of the Sun at this time, we are using time dependent MHD model that is updated in near real-time with the latest measurements of the surface magnetic field,” says its website.

Chasing the Eclipse

Shadia Habbal, a solar eclipse researcher at the University of Hawaii, is hoping to record and analyse the coronal mass ejections, which occur when the sun’s churning magnetic field blasts strands and blobs of material out into space. These coronal mass ejections disturb the flow of the solar wind and can cause damage to satellites and disrupt communications, making it very important to be able to understand and predict their activity. 

“Our hope is from the data we are collecting, we will try to get a better understanding of the physical processes that are going on and try to figure out if we can predict when a coronal mass ejection is going to interfere with the Earth’s magnetic environment,” she said 

Our hope is from the data we’re collecting, we’ll try to get a better understanding of the physical processes that are going on, and to try to figure out if we can predict when a coronal mass ejection is going to interfere with the Earth’s magnetic environment,” she said while conversing with the Hawai’i Public Radio.

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Solar Eclipse 2024: Date, when and where it will be visible

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth, blocking the light reflecting on the Earth from the Sun. A total solar eclipse occurs when the diameter of the Moon appears larger than the Sun in the same way.

When will the eclipse be seen?

On April 8, 2024, the celestial phenomenon will be visible in the day, turning dark for 4 minutes and 28.13 seconds. The Pacific Coast of Mexico will be the first location to experience the totality of this solar eclipse at around 11:07 am PDT. The total eclipse will be visible for these few moments to the stargazers.

Where will it be seen?

North America is set to experience this total solar eclipse after a long seven-year wait, on April 8, 2024. On Monday, the eclipse will cross North America, continuing over Mexico, the United States, and Canada.

According to NASA, the path of the eclipse will continue from Mexico, entering the United States in Texas, and travelling through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Apart from these regions, the total solar eclipse will also be visible from small parts of Tennessee and Michigan.

The solar eclipse of April 8, will enter Canada in Southern Ontario. The Canadian provinces of Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Cape Breton are also set to experience this natural phenomenon. The North American solar eclipse will exit continental North America on the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland.

Canada

It is the first total solar eclipse visible in the provinces of Canada since February 26, 1979. According to NASA, the Moon’s diameter will be 5.5% larger than usual on this day. The provinces in Mexico experienced their first total solar eclipse on July 11, 1991, and the United States on August 21, 2017.

The largest city entirely on the path will be Dallas, Texas. It will be the second total eclipse visible from the central United States after 2017. Totality will pass through Wapakoneta, Ohio, home of the first man on the Moon, Neil Armstrong. This will be the last total solar eclipse visible in the contiguous United States. The next eclipse will be visible on August 23, 2044. However, only the Southeast part of Alaska will be able to see it.

Central America and South America

Central America and South America will also be able to experience the solar eclipse on April 8. It will be partially visible from Belize to Panama and all the Greater Antilles and Colombia.

Hawaii, Eastern Kiribati, Tokelau, American Samoa except for its western part, Cook Islands, French Polynesia, and Pitcairn Islands are also on the path of the solar eclipse.

Europe

The eclipse will be partially visible in Svalbard, Norway, Iceland, Ireland, and Western parts of Great Britain, north-east Spain and Portugal, the Azores and the Canary Islands.

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Total solar eclipse 2024: NASA reveals how it will be different from the 2017 eclipse

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Coming April, a cosmic spectacle will unfold across the skies in the West that promises to captivate millions. As it passes in front of the Sun, the Moon will cast its shadow upon Earth, plunging parts of the United States, Canada, and Mexico into an ethereal darkness.

For the ones who witnessed the magnificent total solar eclipse in August 2017, memories of the Moon’s passage through the Sun and the Earth still linger, a fleeting moment when day turned to twilight, and the Sun’s fiery corona blazed forth. However, this year, the stage is set for something even more extraordinary.

According to NASA, the eclipse on April 8, 2024, could be “even more exciting due to differences in the path, timing, and scientific research.”

Let us delve into the nuances that set the 2024 total solar eclipse apart.

Wider path

The forthcoming total solar eclipse will have a somewhat larger path of totality than the eclipse in 2017, which allows spectators to witness the Moon completely block the Sun and display the corona, the star’s outer atmosphere. The Moon’s distance from Earth varies as it revolves around the Earth.

In 2017, the Moon was a bit farther away from the Earth compared to this year’s total solar eclipse. Because of this, the path of that eclipse was a little skinnier. While the path ranged from about 62 to 71 miles wide in 2017, this time the path over North America is expected to be between 108 and 122 miles wide.

Also, the path of the total solar eclipse this year will pass over more cities and densely populated areas, making it easier for more people to see the totality. Compared with 12 million in 2017, around 31.6 million people live in the path of totality this time, while an additional 150 million people live within 200 miles of the path of totality.

Longer duration in totality

This year, the totality is expected to last longer than it did in 2017. It will last up to 4 minutes and 28 seconds, in the area about 25 minutes northwest of Torreon, Mexico. On the other hand, the longest period of totality was experienced near Carbondale, Illinois, at 2 minutes and 42 seconds in 2017.

In Texas, it will last for about 4 minutes and 26 seconds at the centre of the eclipse’s path.

In parts of Canada, the total eclipse this year will last up to 3 minutes and 21 seconds.

“During any total solar eclipse, totality lasts the longest near the centre of the path, widthwise, and decreases toward the edge. But those seeking totality shouldn’t worry that they need to be exactly at the centre. The time in totality falls off pretty slowly until you get close to the edge,” read a statement by NASA.

Solar activity

In April, the Sun is expected to be in or near solar maximum, a position where the magnetic field is more like a tangled hairball. The Sun becomes more active during solar maximum.

This time, the streamers will likely be visible throughout the corona and viewers will have a better chance to see prominences – which appear as bright, pink curls or loops coming off the Sun, NASA stated.

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Solar Eclipse 2023: All you need to know about the ‘ring of fire’

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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An annular solar eclipse, making the sun appear as a ring of fire, will occur on Saturday, October 14. The rare phenomenon will be visible in the skies over parts of America.

This rare astronomical event, where the Moon partially blocks the Sun, is a first since 2012.

What is the ‘ring of fire’ solar eclipse?

It’s called the ring of fire because of the ring-like shape formed by the Moon partially blocking the Sun. This occurs when the Moon’s size appears slightly smaller than the Sun’s.

Where and when is it visible?

The eclipse will be visible from some parts of North America, starting in Oregon at 9:13 am (PDT) and ending in Texas at 12:03 pm (CDT), according to NASA.

According to reports, the ring of fire will be visible from Oregon to Texas, crossing the USA, and further passing over Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, parts of Central America, and South America from Alaska to Argentina.

When was the last time this eclipse occurred? When will it happen again?

This eclipse is the first of its kind visible from the United States since 2012. The next one will be visible from the US on June 21, 2039.

Will it be visible in India?

No, the eclipse won’t be visible in India. It will exclusively be visible in the Western Hemisphere.

Weather conditions and viewing opportunities

According to Space.com, on Saturday morning, a weakening cold front will stretch from Oregon to northern California, causing cloudy conditions in Washington, Oregon, western Idaho, parts of Nevada, and northern California. This cloud cover might obstruct views of the solar eclipse in places like Eugene, Medford and Alturas.

Further along the eclipse path in Nevada, Utah, northeast Arizona, and New Mexico, there will be clouds, but they are expected to be thinner and may allow views of the sun, albeit with a slightly hazy sky. Cities like Winnemucca, Elko, Richfield, Albuquerque, and Santa Fe are within this path.

Southern and southwestern Texas near the Mexican border might experience cloud cover due to a stalled weather front, potentially affecting places like Del Rio, Uvalde and San Antonio.

The clearest views, with the fewest clouds, are anticipated over southeast New Mexico, northwest Texas and the southern Gulf Coast of Texas, including cities like Carlsbad, Hobbs, Midland, Odessa, and Corpus Christi.

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‘Ring of fire’ solar eclipse, lunar eclipse to jazz up October sky — check dates and timings

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Space enthusiasts are in for a treat in October as a couple of rare astronomical events are scheduled for this month. A solar eclipse will occur on October 14, 2023, and it will be followed by a lunar eclipse on October 28, 2023.

Next Saturday (October 14), a partial solar eclipse, which is called a ‘ring of fire’ eclipse, will be visible across most of the Americas for the first time since 2012.

According to NASA, the solar eclipse will move from the Oregon coast to the Gulf of Mexico, offering millions of people in the Western Hemisphere the opportunity to witness this celestial spectacle. The Moon will form a concentric circle and the uncovered rim of the Sun will be exposed, creating a ring of fire. As the Sun is never completely hidden by the Moon during an annular (ring-shaped) solar eclipse, it can be watched using specialised eye protection made for solar viewing.

NASA said it will be visible in parts of the United States, Mexico, and many countries in South and Central America, and warned people not to look directly at the eclipse.

Peg Luce, Acting Director of NASA’s Heliophysics Division, said this dazzling celestial phenomenon will allow countless individuals to experience “the awe and the wonder of seeing a beautiful ring of fire eclipse.”

The ring of fire solar eclipse will not be visible from India. However, Indians and others across the globe can watch it through the official NASA broadcast available on their YouTube channel. The eclipse begins in Oregon and ends in Texas. On its YouTube channel, NASA has provided the option of ‘notify me’ for users who are interested in viewing the live telecast. The solar eclipse begins at 11.29 pm IST on October 14 and ends at 11.34 pm IST.

As explained briefly by NASA, an annular solar eclipse takes place when the Moon is at or near its furthest point from Earth and passes in front of the Sun. According to NASA’s official website, as the Moon is farther away from Earth, it appears smaller than the Sun and does not completely cover the Sun. As a result, the Moon appears as a dark disk on top of a larger, bright disk, creating what looks like a ring around the Moon.

Lunar eclipse

Lunar eclipses occur when the Earth comes between the Sun and the Moon, resulting in the Earth’s shadow being cast on the Moon’s surface. These events are intriguing to observe because they exclusively happen during a full moon.

This month, the lunar eclipse will occur on October 28, 2023. The eclipse will start at 11.31 pm IST and end at 3.36 am IST. This eclipse will be visible from regions where the Moon is above the horizon, encompassing Asia, Russia, Africa, the Americas, Europe, Antarctica, and Oceania.

From New Delhi, it can be seen in the southwestern sky, with the Moon positioned 62 degrees above the horizon. In India, the maximum point of the eclipse is expected to occur at 1.45 am, during which 12% of the lunar surface will be in shadow, as reported by LiveMint.

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NASA says ‘ring of fire’ solar eclipse to be visible across US in October: Check date and other details

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has announced an annular solar eclipse in the United States which will be witnessed on October 14, this year. According to NASA, the solar eclipse is a “ring of fire,” which will move from the Oregon coast to the Gulf of Mexico.

The US space agency informed that it will be relatively smaller in size, the Moon will form a concentric circle and the uncovered rim of the Sun which will be exposed will create a ring of fire. As the Sun is never completely hidden by the Moon during an annular solar eclipse, it can be watched using specialised eye protection made for solar viewing. NASA has warned people not to look directly at the eclipse.

In addition to informing the public that they will be able to see this natural occurrence from Oregon in the north to Texas in the south, they can also watch the live coverage of the solar eclipse through the provided link on their tweet.

Save the date for a solar eclipse: On Oct. 14, a “ring of fire,” or annular, eclipse will travel from the U.S. Oregon coast to the Gulf of Mexico.

Wherever you are, you can watch it live with us: https://t.co/J9l63O2zUF pic.twitter.com/B94l2lZNqb

— NASA (@NASA) August 28, 2023

The live streaming of the celestial event will be available on the official YouTube channel of NASA. People who will be watching through the official link can ask questions to the scientists in chat as well by using #askNASA. On its YouTube channel, NASA has provided the option of “Notify me” for users who are interested in viewing the live telecast.

Millions of people in the Western Hemisphere can witness the annular solar eclipse, which will be visible in different parts of the United States, Mexico, and several nations in South and Central America.

As explained briefly by NASA, an annular solar eclipse takes place when the Moon is at or near its furthest point from Earth and passes in front of the Sun. According to NASA’s official website, as the Moon is farther away from Earth, it appears smaller than the Sun and does not completely cover the Sun. As a result, the Moon appears as a dark disk on top of a larger, bright disk, creating what looks like a ring around the Moon

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Rare solar eclipse to dazzle till 12.29 pm: When and how to watch

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Space enthusiasts are in for a treat as a very rare and strange astronomical event is about to occur. A hybrid solar eclipse is taking place till around 12.30pm IST today, thanks to an alignment that takes place only a few times every one hundred years.

A solar eclipse involves our entire planet. But it is usually visible from a select number of locations. Therefore, skywatchers might have to travel a bit if they want to get dazzled by the celestial display in real life.

Where is a hybrid solar eclipse visible?

The hybrid solar eclipse is visible in parts of the Pacific and Indian Ocean regions. Furthermore, the observers in western Australia, parts of East Timor, and the Indonesian province of West Papua will get to see the totality, reported EarthSky.

This eclipse will not be seen in India. But the skywatchers, in the country, can view the rare astronomical event online.

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The timing of the hybrid solar eclipse which started around 7am IST will go on till around 12.30pm will vary according to the geographical location of the skywatchers. It can be streamed online on the NASA website.

What is a hybrid solar eclipse?

Solar eclipses occur when our planet, the Moon, and the Sun line up. When this happens, the Moon casts a shadow on our planet as it passes between the Sun and Earth. This shadow either fully or partially blocks the Sun’s light in certain areas on the planet. A lunar eclipse differs from a solar eclipse as it involves the Earth coming in between the Sun and the Moon.

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Types of Solar Eclipses

There are four types of solar eclipses – total, annular, partial and hybrid.

While these astronomical events are considered rare, a hybrid solar eclipse is the rarest of them all. Another hybrid solar eclipse after April 20 is expected in 2031, the last predicted occurrence for 133 years. A hybrid solar eclipse is essentially a combination of an annular and a total eclipse. In this rare phenomenon, an eclipse shifts between annular and total as the Moon’s shadow moves across the planet.

An annular solar eclipse is one of the most impressive celestial events. In an annular solar eclipse, the moon blocks out the centre of the sun and leaves a circle of light from the sun visible from within a shadow. This dazzling circle of light looks like a ring of fire.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow