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Table of Contents
In astronomy, an eclipse is the entire or partial obscuration of one planetary object by another. When three celestial objects align, an eclipse occurs.
See the fact file below for more information about eclipses, or alternatively, download our comprehensive worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.
Key Facts & Information
OVERVIEW
- The Sun is eclipsed from the viewpoint of an individual on Earth when the moon gets between it and Earth, while the moon is eclipsed when it comes into the shadow formed by the Sun on Earth.
- Eclipses occur when natural satellites (moons) or spacecraft orbiting or flying past a planet move into the planet’s shadow.
- An eclipsing binary system’s two component stars circle each other so that their orbital plane passes through or is extremely close to Earth. Each star periodically eclipses the other as viewed from Earth.
- An occultation occurs when the relative size of the eclipsed body is substantially less than that of the eclipsed body. A star, nebula, or planet may vanish behind the moon, or a natural satellite or spacecraft may disappear behind somebody in the solar system.
- A transit happens when a relatively tiny body, seen from Earth or another point in space, travels over the disk of a more extensive body, generally the Sun or a planet, eclipsing only a tiny region.
- For example, Mercury and Venus transit the Sun regularly, and a natural satellite may cross its planet. Extrasolar planets (HD 209458b) have been detected as they traverse their Sun.
ETYMOLOGY
- The word emanated from the ancient Greek noun Γ©kleipsis, which means “the abandonment,” “the downfall,” or “the darkening of a heavenly body.” It is derived from the verb eklep, which means “to abandon,” “to darken,” or “to cease to exist,” a combination of the prefix ek-, from the preposition ek, “out,” and the verb lep, “to be absent.”
UMBRA, PENUMBRA & ANTUMBRA
- Connect any two objects in space by extending a line from one to the other. The last item will block part of the light emitted by the former, forming a shadow zone around the line’s axis.
- Because these items often move with one another and their surroundings, the resultant shadow will sweep around an area of space, only passing through any given point for a defined interval of time. This shadowing occurrence is characterized as an eclipse from such a vantage point.
- The cross-section of the components involved in an astronomical eclipse is typically disk-shaped. During an eclipse, the region of an object’s shadow is split into three parts:
- The umbra is the area in which an item obscures the light source. The photosphere is the Sun’s light source.
- The antumbra extends beyond the tip of the umbra and contains the item directly in front of the light source but is too tiny to cover it entirely.
- The penumbra is the area in front of the light source where the item is only partially visible.
- When the observer is inside the umbra, the eclipse is total; when the observer is within the antumbra, the eclipse is annular; and when the viewer is within the penumbra, the eclipse is partial.
- Because the antumbra of the Sun-Earth system is far beyond the moon during a lunar eclipse, only the umbra and penumbra are applicable.
- Similarly, the Earth’s apparent diameter from the moon’s perspective is approximately four times that of the Sun, preventing an annular eclipse.
- The exact words can describe other eclipses, such as Deimos’ antumbra crossing Mars or Phobos entering Mars’ penumbra.
ECLIPSE CYCLES
- An eclipse cycle occurs when eclipses in a sequence are separated by a particular amount of time.
- It occurs when the orbital movements of the bodies form repeated harmonic patterns. The saros, for example, causes a solar or lunar eclipse to repeat every 6,585.3 days, or little more than 18 years.
- Because this is not a complete number of days, subsequent eclipses will be seen from various regions of the Earth. One saros period has 239.0 anomalistic periods, 241.0 sidereal periods, 242.0 nodical periods, and 223.0 synodic periods.
- Although the moon’s orbit does not provide exact integers, the number of orbit cycles is near enough to an integer to give considerable resemblance to eclipses spaced at 18.03 yr intervals.
EARTH-MOON SYSTEM
- An eclipse comprising the Sun, Earth, and Moon may occur only when they are nearly parallel, enabling one to be obscured behind the other, as seen from the third.
- Because the moon’s orbital plane is inclined to the Earth’s orbital plane (the ecliptic), eclipses can ensue only when the moon is close to the junction of these two planes (the nodes).
- The Sun, Earth, and nodes coincide twice a year (during eclipse season), and eclipses can occur within two months around these dates. A calendar year can include four to seven eclipses, which reoccur according to various eclipse cycles, such as a saros.
- There are a total of seven eclipses between 1901 and 2100 in:
- There will be four (penumbral) lunar eclipses and three solar eclipses between 1908 and 2038.
- There were four solar eclipses and three lunar eclipses in 1918, 1973, and 2094.
- 1934 had five solar eclipses and two lunar eclipses.
- Except for penumbral lunar eclipses, the following years had the most eclipses: 1591, 1656, 1787, 1805, 1918, 1935, 1982, and 2094.
PHENOMENA OBSERVED DURING ECLIPSES
SOLAR ECLIPSE
- A solar eclipse transpires when the moon passes in front of the Sun, as seen from Earth. The kind of solar eclipse event is determined by the moon’s distance from the Earth at the time of the occurrence.
- A total solar eclipse appears when the Earth encounters the umbra section of the moon’s shadow. The Sun is only partially occulted when the umbra does not reach the Earth’s surface, resulting in an annular eclipse. When the observer is inside the penumbra, a partial solar eclipse occurs.
- The eclipse magnitude is the proportion of the Sun’s diameter that the Moon covers and this number is consistently larger than or equal to one during a complete eclipse. The eclipse magnitude is the ratio of the angular diameters of the Moon and Sun in both annular and total eclipses.
- Solar eclipses are short-lived occurrences that can only be seen in totality over a small path. A complete solar eclipse can last 7 minutes and 31 seconds under ideal conditions and can be seen along a track up to 250 kilometers wide.
- On the other hand, the area where a partial eclipse may be seen is substantially greater. The moon’s umbra will move eastward at a speed of 1,700 km/h until it no longer meets the Earth’s surface.
- The moon may occasionally wholly hide the Sun during a solar eclipse because its apparent size is roughly the same as the Sun’s when seen from Earth. An annular solar eclipse is an occultation, whereas a total solar eclipse is a transit.
- The Sun can be obscured by bodies other than the moon when visible from positions other than the Earth’s surface. In 1969, the crew of Apollo 12 witnessed the Earth eclipse of the Sun, and in 2006, the Cassini spacecraft saw Saturn eclipse the Sun.
LUNAR ECLIPSE
- When the moon is complete, it may cast a shadow on Earth. The moon revolves around Earth from west to east, and the moon’s shadow begins at its left edge for observers facing south.
- If the eclipse is complete and the favorable conditions, the moon will travel into the umbra, the deepest area of the shadow, in around two hours.
- The moon is frequently not entirely black at this hour. A portion of the sunlight, remarkably the redder light, passes through the Earth’s atmosphere, refracts into the shadow cone, and eventually reaches the moon. Earth’s meteorological conditions heavily influence the amount and color of light that can enter the atmosphere.
- The completely eclipsed moon is generally visible and has a reddish brown, coppery color, but the brightness varies greatly from eclipse to eclipse.
- Before entering and leaving the umbra, the moon must cross through the penumbra or partial shadow. When the boundary between the umbra and penumbra is apparent on the moon, it seems to be part of a circle, a projection of Earth’s diameter.
- It is explicit confirmation of the Earth’s spherical form, which the ancient Greeks discovered. Because of the Earth’s atmosphere, the umbra’s edge is relatively diffuse and cannot reliably monitor the moments of contact between the moon and the umbra.
- During the eclipse, the moon’s surface cools at a pace determined by the composition of the lunar soil, which is not uniform throughout.
- Many lunar eclipse locations on the moon occasionally stay brighter than their surroundings during totality, notably in their production of infrared radiation, potentially due to lower heat conductivity, although the explanation is unknown.
- May witness a lunar eclipse under comparable conditions wherever on Earth where the moon is above the horizon.
OTHER PLANETS AND DWARF PLANETS
GAS GIANTS
- Because the gas giant planets have multiple moons, eclipses occur often. Jupiter has four massive moons and a low axial tilt, causing eclipses to occur more often. Transits happen regularly, and the more giant moons produce circular shadows on Jupiter’s cloud tops.
- After determining their orbital components, they correctly predicted Jupiter’s eclipses of the Galilean moons. In the 1670s, decided that these events happened around 17 minutes later than expected when Jupiter was on the distant side of the Sun.
- According to Ole Romer, the time required for light to get from Jupiter to Earth caused the delay, resulting in the first estimate of the speed of light.
- Due to the greater angle between the rotations of the moon and the orbital plane of the planet on the other three gas giants (Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune), eclipses only occur at specific times throughout the planet’s orbit.
- Titan, for example, has an orbital plane inclined around 1.6 degrees to Saturn’s equatorial plane. On the other hand, Saturn has an axial tilt of almost 27Β°. Titan’s orbital plane only crosses the line of sight to the Sun twice throughout Saturn’s orbit. Because Saturn’s orbital period is 29.7 years, an eclipse occurs once every 15 years.
- It also utilized the time of the eclipses of the Jovian satellites to compute an observer’s longitude on Earth. Adequately monitoring the local time of the eclipse and knowing the predicted time when would view an eclipse at a standard longitude (such as Greenwich) may estimate the time difference.
- Because every hour of difference corresponds to 15Β° around the Earth’s equator, the time difference gave the observer’s longitude. Giovanni D. Cassini, for example, used this approach to re-map France in 1679.
MARS
- Because none of Mars‘ moons is vast enough, at their respective orbital radii, fully cover the Sun’s disc as viewed from the planet’s surface, only partial solar eclipses (transits) are conceivable.
- Mars eclipses of the moons are feasible and standard, with hundreds happening yearly. Phobos can also overshadow Deimos on rare occasions.
- Photographs of Martian eclipses have been taken from both the surface and orbit.
PLUTO
- Pluto, with its giant moon Charon, is also the location of several eclipses. Between 1985 and 1990, a series of similar reciprocal eclipses occurred.
- These everyday occurrences resulted in the first precise measurements of both items’ physical properties.
MERCURY AND VENUS
- Mercury and Venus have no moons. Hence eclipses are impossible.
- However, both have been seen to transit over the face of the Sun as seen from Earth. Each century, Mercury makes an average of 13 transits.
- Venus transits occur in pairs separated by eight years, although each team occurs fewer than once every century.
- According to NASA, the next set of Venus traverses will occur on December 10, 2117, and December 8, 2125.
- Mercury transits are far more common.
Eclipse Worksheets
This bundle contains 12 ready-to-use Eclipse Worksheets that are perfect for students who want to learn more about an eclipse which is an astronomical event. It is a process that develops slowly across time when one object in the sky moves into the shadow of another such object.
Download includes the following worksheets:
- Eclipse Facts
- Quick Quiz
- Define and Match
- Coloring the Skies
- Check your Calendar
- Myths During Eclipse
- Define the Pictures
- Selenelion Phenomena
- Lunar Eclipse in Culture
- Effects of Lunar Eclipse
- Moon Poetry
- Universal Eclipse
- Planets and Eclipse
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an Eclipse?
In astronomy, an eclipse is the entire or partial obscuration of one planetary object by another. When three celestial objects align, an eclipse occurs.
How does eclipse get its name?
The word emanated from the ancient Greek noun Γ©kleipsis, which means “the abandonment,” “the downfall,” or “the darkening of a heavenly body.” It is derived from the verb eklep, which means “to abandon,” “to darken,” or “to cease to exist,” a combination of the prefix ek-, from the preposition ek, “out,” and the verb lep, “to be absent.”
What causes a solar eclipse to occur?
A solar eclipse transpires when the moon passes in front of the Sun, as seen from Earth. The kind of solar eclipse event is determined by the moon’s distance from the Earth at the time of the occurrence.
What happens during a lunar eclipse?
During the eclipse, the moon’s surface cools at a pace determined by the composition of the lunar soil, which is not uniform throughout. Many lunar eclipse locations on the moon occasionally stay brighter than their surroundings during totality, notably in their production of infrared radiation, potentially due to lower heat conductivity, although the explanation is unknown.
Are eclipses possible on Mercury and Venus?
Mercury and Venus have no moons, and hence eclipses are impossible. However, both have been seen to transit over the face of the Sun as seen from Earth. Each century, Mercury makes an average of 13 transits.
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Link will appear as Eclipse Facts & Worksheets: https://kidskonnect.com - KidsKonnect, August 16, 2017
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