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Last week, the gravity dance and the orbital mechanics brought us a rare and wonderful event: a total eclipse of the Sun. When this happens, the Moon passes directly between the Earth and the Sun, casting its shadow far into space to land on the surface of our planet.
The shadow is small, a few hundred kilometers in general, so you have to be in the right place at the right time. But if you are, you can experience what can only be described as the fear and glory of the Sun in eclipse.
I myself experienced this two years ago in Wyoming, but on July 2, 2019, the angle of the Moon in the space cast its shadow over the Pacific Ocean and South America. People from around the world flocked to Chile and Argentina to testify themselves.
After finally seeing one, I can tell you that the photos and videos are not and can not do it justice – you do not feel the darkening of the sky, the beginning of the cold, the lighting strange while the sun is over the moon …
… But that does not mean that such recordings are without size. I've seen several over the week that followed the eclipse, and some are breathtaking. Here, let me show you just a sample of them.
First, a magnificent shot of the sun during the whole, taken at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. You can see the crown, the extremely hot but extremely fine atmosphere of the sun, flowing from the surface, a hot plasma following the lines of intense magnetism bubbling from the depths of the sun. Bottom left are several protuberances, huge plasma plates, glowing due to the way the hot hydrogen emits light. One is so bright that it seems overexposed and white.
A photo taken by astronomers in La Silla shows a close-up of one of these protuberances emerging from the sun. Do not forget that the height is about 100,000 kilometers! The Earth is about the same size as the "small" protuberances that you can see in a series at the bottom right of the Sun, in case you need a sense of arrogance and d Of personal importance placed under the heel of the Sun. cosmos.
The sun is huge.
Pass… This video is wonderful:
This video combines data from the GOES 16 and 17 satellites, which are stationed in geosynchronous orbits some 40,000 km from Earth. From this orbit, it seems that the Earth does not turn under them (they gravitate every 24 hours). So you see the terminator (the line indicating day and night) moving to the left.
Then, the shadow of the Moon moves from left to right, sweeping first the ocean, then South America. You can see how small the Moon's shadow is (the Moon itself is about 1/4 the size of the Earth and its shadow is even smaller). There is also Hurricane Barbara in the Pacific and a whirlwind of spinning in the clouds in northern Canada. In the end, a remarkable sequence!
It also clearly shows why you must be in the right place on Earth at the right time, otherwise you will miss it. Only people who are on the path of this black shadow see a total solar eclipse. everyone sees a partial or none!
This can win the record of the most distant observation of the shadow of the moon on the ground … as well as the most stupid:
This spectacular image was taken by the Longjiang 2, a spacecraft orbiting the moon that docked to the Chinese mission Queqiao, which itself was supporting the lunar lander and the Chang rover & # 39; 4. Longjiang 2 is not an amazing fantasy camera, so the picture is low resolution, but it shows something really amazing: the Moon itself in the foreground and the Earth at the # 39, background with the shadow of the moon on it. This really gives you an idea of the distance from the moon. 380,000 km is a very long way.
Combining observations from the ground and the space is also possible. In this one, the ESA Proba-2 satellites (shown in dark gray) allowed imaging of the Sun's surface under extreme ultraviolet light. This was then superimposed on an image of the inner ring (lighter gray) where magnetic energy streamers can be seen. The outer corona (in red) was observed by the SOHO satellite of NASA / ESA, and an even wider field (in blue) was imaged by a different camera on SOHO (the black down on the bottom left is an artefact of a metal piece SOHO used a small metal disc to block the sunlight so that the much weaker crown is visible). You can follow the streamers for a long distance, several million kilometers; for the scale, the Sun has a width of 1.4 million km. The dots in the background are stars and others cosmic rays, subatomic particles that strike the detector and leave bright spots.
Ironically, this image was taken during the eclipse, but from the point of view of the Proba satellites, the Moon did not totally block the Sun! I can prove it; Here's what they've seen:
Nevertheless, the amusing composite image can serve as a reference to see what the sun and its crown were doing during the same eclipse, especially far from the sun in the sky.
I also like this video. This shows that you do not need a total eclipse to see something breathtaking. In this case, the sun goes down during the partial eclipse.
It is a lapse of time of about three minutes while the sun goes down in Brazil. He was caught by Lucas Gonçalves Bittar, who held his phone in front of his telescope's eyepiece! It's an amazing job. He sent it to me, then set it up on YouTube so I could embed it here. I thank him for that! I would like to see something like this myself.
And finally, sometimes, what you really want, is a broader view:
Sensational. This was taken while the Sun was overshadowed by the wonderful La Silla Observatory of the Southern European Observatory, Chile. You can even see the shadow of the moon itself projected into the sky, distorted by perspective. Compare this to the view of the space in the images above. You see the edge of the shadow of the Moon, circular in space, but deforming a little by falling along the Curved Earth and our own perspective. On the outside of this shadow, the sun shines, illuminating the haze, dust and other particles in the air, so that it looks brighter. Unbelievable.
And if you are curious, this shining star in the lower left is actually not a star, but the planet Venus! It's pretty bright, so you can easily see it during a total solar eclipse; we saw it during the 2017 eclipse. You can see Venus in broad daylight if you know exactly where to look … but the fact that the moon blocks this dazzling light source helps a lot.
I have not traveled to South America for this eclipse, I do not consider it for the 2020 even further south. But on April 8, 2024, we receive another here in the United States, and for this one, I will certainly do what I can to attend. It will be twice as long as that of 2017, and it's something I would love to live.
Until then, we have images and videos like these. It is not surprising that the ancient peoples of the Earth attributed supernatural causes to a solar eclipse; even the most rational people can not help being moved by sight. Our technology and our science have allowed us to better understand eclipses … and perhaps even better, we now have a view of these events that the ancients could only dream of.
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