Welcome back to The Mysterious Cosmos, ever wondered why does an eclipse occur? Is there someone playing with the planets? Or is there some magical force driving the heavenly bodies or it is just the way our universe works.
On 21 July 2017 the U.S.A observed a Total Solar Eclipse, one of the most beautiful phenomenon the nature portrays before us. It is magnificent, it is fascinating...... well the phenomenon can not be explained by words!
Think of the Sun and the Earth as to points on a line and since they lie on a line we call it as the Earth-Sun plane. Now imagine that an ellipse is drawn around the plane such that it intersects it at two points( remember now we are taking about 3d plane) which we call nodes and a eclipse will occur only at nodal intersections. So at a nodal position when Moon is between Earth and Sun we call it a solar eclipse while lunar eclipse occurs when the earth is between the two and then? boom xD
Here comes one more interesting thing , we know that the Sun is huge, very very huge so how does the Moon covers the Sun totally? Well it seems nature has found its own way to make an eclipse, we know that the Sun is 400x the Moon but also it is 400x away from the Earth which causes their apparent size to be the same and thus boom again xD and we get a Solar Eclipse!
By: Aviral Srivasatava, Founder, Author at The Mysterious Cosmos
Find us on Instagram: cosmos__mysterious
Facebook: The Mysterious Cosmos
On 21 July 2017 the U.S.A observed a Total Solar Eclipse, one of the most beautiful phenomenon the nature portrays before us. It is magnificent, it is fascinating...... well the phenomenon can not be explained by words!
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| Eclipse as seen from the GIII aircraft! |
Well a Solar Eclipse is a Transit of The Moon ( for more on transit visit : Mercury Transit) such that the Moon comes between the Earth and Sun. Well now some of you may question that this also happens during a new moon which happens every month so the solar eclipse should also occur monthly? The answer to it is simple, here's how it goes.
Think of the Sun and the Earth as to points on a line and since they lie on a line we call it as the Earth-Sun plane. Now imagine that an ellipse is drawn around the plane such that it intersects it at two points( remember now we are taking about 3d plane) which we call nodes and a eclipse will occur only at nodal intersections. So at a nodal position when Moon is between Earth and Sun we call it a solar eclipse while lunar eclipse occurs when the earth is between the two and then? boom xD
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| The geometry of an eclipse. |
Here comes one more interesting thing , we know that the Sun is huge, very very huge so how does the Moon covers the Sun totally? Well it seems nature has found its own way to make an eclipse, we know that the Sun is 400x the Moon but also it is 400x away from the Earth which causes their apparent size to be the same and thus boom again xD and we get a Solar Eclipse!
By: Aviral Srivasatava, Founder, Author at The Mysterious Cosmos
Find us on Instagram: cosmos__mysterious
Facebook: The Mysterious Cosmos
