printfriendly.com /print T his article is about astronomical eclipses. For other uses, see Eclipse (disambiguation). "Total eclipse" redirects here. For other uses, see Total Eclipse (disambiguation). An eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when an astronomical object is temporarily obscured, either by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer. An eclipse is a type of syzygy. T he term eclipse is most of ten used to describe either a solar eclipse, when the Moon's shadow crosses the Earth's surf ace, or a lunar eclipse, when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow. However, it can also ref er to such events beyond the Earth–Moon system: f or example, a planet moving into the shadow cast by one of its moons, a moon passing into the shadow cast by its host planet, or a moon passing into the shadow of another moon. A binary star system can also produce eclipses if the plane of the orbit of its constituent stars intersects the observer's position.
To tality d uring the 1999 s o lar e c lip s e . So lar p ro mine nc e s c an b e s e e n alo ng the limb (in re d ) as we ll as e xte ns ive c o ro nal filame nts .
T he term is derived f rom the ancient Greek noun ἔ κλειψις (ékleipsis), which means "the abandonment", "the downf all", or "the darkening of a heavenly body", which is derived f rom the verb ἐ κλείπ ω (ekleípō) which means "to abandon", "to darken", or "to cease to exist," a combination of pref ix ἐ κ- (ek-), f rom preposition ἐ κ (ek), "out," and of verb λείπ ω (leípō), "to be absent".
Umbra, penumbra and antumbra
T he region of the Moon's shadow in a solar eclipse is divided into three parts: T he umbra, within which the Moon completely covers the Sun (more precisely, its photosphere). T he antumbra, extending beyond the tip of the umbra, within which the Moon is completely in f ront of the Sun but too small to completely cover it.
Umb ra, p e numb ra and antumb ra c as t b y an o p aq ue o b je c t o c c ulting a larg e r lig ht s o urc e .
T he penumbra, within which the Moon is only partially in f ront of the Sun.
During a lunar eclipse only the umbra and penumbra are applicable. T his is because Earth's apparent diameter f rom the viewpoint of the Moon is nearly f our times that of the Sun. T he first contact occurs when the Moon's disc f irst starts to impinge on the Sun's; second contact is when the Moon's disc moves completely within the Sun's; third contact when it starts to move out of the Sun's; and fourth or last contact when it f inally leaves the Sun's disc entirely. T he same terms may be used analogously in describing other eclipses, e.g., the antumbra of Deimos crossing Mars, or Phobos entering Mars's penumbra. A total eclipse occurs when the observer is within the umbra, an annular eclipse when the observer is within the antumbra, and a partial eclipse when the observer is within the penumbra. For spherical bodies, when the occulting object is smaller than the star, the length (L) of the umbra's cone-shaped shadow is given by: where Rs is the radius of the star, Ro is the occulting object's radius, and r is the distance f rom the star to the occulting object. For Earth, on average L is equal to 1.384×106 km, which is much larger than the Moon's semimajor axis of 3.844×105 km. Hence the umbral cone of the Earth can completely envelop the Moon during a lunar eclipse. If the occulting object has an atmosphere, however, some of the luminosity of the star can be ref racted into the volume of the umbra. T his occurs, f or example, during an eclipse of the Moon by the Earth—producing a f aint, ruddy illumination of the Moon even at totality.
An eclipse cycle takes place when a series of eclipses are separated by a certain interval of time. T his happens when the orbital motions of the bodies f orm repeating harmonic patterns. A particular instance is the saros, which results in a repetition of a solar or lunar eclipse every 6,585.3 days, or a little over 18 years (because this is not a whole number of days, successive eclipses will be visible f rom dif f erent parts of the world).
An eclipse involving the Sun, Earth and Moon can occur only when they are nearly in a straight line, allowing one to be hidden behind another, viewed f rom the third. Because the orbital plane of the Moon is tilted with respect to the orbital plane of the Earth (the ecliptic), eclipses can occur only when the Moon is close to the intersection of these two planes (the nodes). T he Sun, Earth and nodes are aligned twice a year (during an eclipse season), and eclipses can occur during a period of about two months around these times. T here can be f rom f our to seven eclipses in a calendar year, which repeat according to various eclipse cycles, such as a saros.
A s ymb o lic o rb ital d iag ram fro m the vie w o f the Earth at the c e nte r, with the s un and mo o n p ro je c te d up o n the c e le s tial s p he re , s ho wing the Mo o n' s two no d e s whe re e c lip s e s c an o c c ur.
Between 1901 and 2100 there are the maximum of seven eclipses in: f our (penumbral) lunar and three solar eclipses: 1908, 2038. f our solar and three lunar eclipses: 1917, 1973, 2094. f ive solar and two lunar eclipses: 1934.
Excluding penumbral lunar eclipses, there are a maximum of seven eclipses in: 1591, 1656, 1787, 1805, 1917, 1935, 1982, and 2094.
Main article: Solar eclipse As observed f rom the Earth, a solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes in f ront of the Sun. T he type of solar eclipse event depends on the distance of the Moon f rom the Earth during the event. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Earth intersects the umbra portion of the Moon's shadow. When the umbra does not reach the surf ace of the Earth, the Sun is only partially occulted, resulting in an annular eclipse. Partial solar eclipses occur when the viewer is inside the penumbra. T he eclipse magnitude is the f raction of the Sun's diameter that is covered by the Moon. For a total eclipse, this value is always greater than or equal to one. In both annular and total eclipses, the eclipse magnitude is the ratio of the angular sizes of the Moon to the Sun. Solar eclipses are relatively brief events that can only be viewed in totality along a relatively narrow track. Under the most f avorable circumstances, a total solar eclipse can last f or 7 minutes, 31 seconds, and can be viewed along a track that is up to 250 km wide. However, the region where a partial eclipse can be observed is much larger. T he Moon's umbra will advance eastward at a rate of 1,700 km/h, until it no longer intersects the Earth's surf ace. During a solar eclipse, the Moon can sometimes perf ectly cover the Sun because its size is nearly the same as the Sun's when viewed f rom the Earth. A total solar eclipse is in f act an occultation while an annular solar eclipse is a transit.
Main article: Lunar eclipse Lunar eclipses occur when the Moon passes through the Earth's shadow.T his occurs only when the Moon is on the f ar side of the G e o me try o f a to tal s o lar e c lip s e Earth f rom the Sun, lunar eclipses only occur when there is a f ull moon. Unlike a solar eclipse, an eclipse of the Moon can be observed f rom nearly an entire hemisphere. For this reason it is much more common to observe a lunar eclipse f rom a given location. A lunar eclipse also lasts longer, taking several hours to complete, with totality itself usually averaging anywhere f rom about 30 minutes to over an hour. T here are three types of lunar eclipses: penumbral, when the Moon crosses only the Earth's penumbra; partial, when the Moon crosses partially into the Earth's umbra; and total, when the Moon crosses entirely into the Earth's umbra. Total lunar eclipses pass through all three phases. Even during a total
(no t to s c ale )
The p ro g re s s io n o f a lunar e c lip s e . To tality is s ho wn with the las t two imag e s to lo we r rig ht. The s e re q uire d a lo ng e r e xp o s ure time to make the d e tails vis ib le .
lunar eclipse, however, the Moon is not completely dark. Sunlight ref racted through the Earth's atmosphere enters the umbra and provides a f aint illumination. Much as in a sunset, the atmosphere tends to more strongly scatter light with shorter wavelengths, so the illumination of the Moon by ref racted light has a red hue, thus the phrase 'Blood Moon' is of ten f ound in descriptions of such lunar events as f ar back as eclipses are recorded.
Hist orical record
Records of solar eclipses have been kept since ancient times. Eclipse dates can be used f or chronological dating of historical records. A Syrian clay tablet records a solar eclipse which occurred on March 5, 1223 B.C., while Paul Grif f in argues that a stone in Ireland records an eclipse on November 30, 3340 B.C. Positing classical-era astronomers' use of Babylonian eclipse records mostly f rom the 13th century BC provides a f easible and mathematically consistent  explanation f or the Greek f inding all three lunar mean motions (synodic, anomalistic, draconitic) to a precision of about one part in a million or better. Chinese historical records of solar eclipses date back over 4,000 years and have been used to measure changes in the Earth's rate of spin. By the 1600s, European astronomers were publishing books with diagrams explaining how lunar and solar eclipses occurred. In order to disseminate this inf ormation to a broader audience and decrease f ear of the consequences of eclipses, booksellers printed broadsides explaining the event either using the science or via astrology.
Some other planets and Pluto
Gas giant s
T he gas giant planets (Jupiter,Saturn,Uranus, and Neptune) have many moons and thus f requently display eclipses. T he most striking involve Jupiter, which has f our large moons and a low axial tilt, making eclipses more f requent as these bodies pass through the shadow of the larger planet. Transits occur with equal f requency. It is common to see the larger moons casting circular shadows upon Jupiter's cloudtops. T he eclipses of the Galilean moons by Jupiter became accurately predictable once their orbital elements were known. During the 1670s, it was discovered that these A p ic ture o f J up ite r and its mo o n Io take n b y Hub b le . The b lac k s p o t is Io ' s s had o w. events were occurring about 17 minutes later than expected when Jupiter was on the f ar side of the Sun. Ole Rømer deduced that the delay was caused by the time needed f or light to travel f rom Jupiter to the Earth. T his was used to produce the f irst estimate of the speed of light. On the other three gas giants, eclipses only occur at certain periods during the planet's orbit, due to their higher inclination between the orbits of the moon and the orbital plane of the planet. T he moon Titan, f or example, has an orbital plane tilted about 1.6° to Saturn's equatorial plane. But Saturn has an axial tilt of nearly 27°. T he orbital plane of Titan only crosses the line of sight to the Sun at two points along Saturn's orbit. As the orbital period of Saturn is 29.7 years, an eclipse is only possible about every 15 years. T he timing of the Jovian satellite eclipses was also used to calculate an observer's longitude upon the Earth. By knowing the expected time when an eclipse would be observed at a standard
longitude (such as Greenwich), the time dif f erence could be computed by accurately observing the local time of the eclipse. T he time dif f erence gives the longitude of the observer because every hour of dif f erence corresponded to 15° around the Earth's equator. T his technique was used, f or example, by Giovanni D. Cassini in 1679 to re-map France.
Main article: Transit of Phobos f rom Mars On Mars, only partial solar eclipses (transits) are possible, because neither of its moons is large enough, at their respective orbital radii, to cover the Sun's disc as seen f rom the surf ace of the planet. Eclipses of the moons by Mars are not only possible, but commonplace, with hundreds occurring each Earth year. T here are also rare occasions when Deimos is eclipsed by Phobos. Martian eclipses have been photographed f rom both the surf ace of Mars and f rom orbit.
Main article: Solar eclipses on Pluto Pluto, with its proportionately large moon Charon, is also the site of many eclipses. A series of such mutual eclipses occurred between 1985 and 1990. T hese daily events led to the f irst accurate measurements of the physical parameters of both objects.
Mercury and Venus
Eclipses are impossible on Mercury and Venus, which have no moons. However, both have been observed to transit across the f ace of the Sun. T here are on average 13 transits of Mercury each century. Transits of Venus occur in pairs separated by an interval of eight years, but each pair of events happen less than once a century.
A binary star system consists of two stars that orbit around their common center of mass. T he movements of both stars lie on a common orbital plane in space. When this plane is very closely aligned with the location of an observer, the stars can be seen to pass in f ront of each other. T he result is a type of extrinsic variable star system called an eclipsing binary. T he maximum luminosity of an eclipsing binary system is equal to the sum of the luminosity contributions f rom the individual stars. When one star passes in f ront of the other, the luminosity of the system is seen to decrease. T he luminosity returns to normal once the two stars are no longer in alignment. T he f irst eclipsing binary star system to be discovered was Algol, a star system in the constellation Perseus. Normally this star system has a visual magnitude of 2.1. However, every 2.867 days the magnitude decreases to 3.4 f or more than nine hours. T his is caused by the passage of the dimmer member of the pair in f ront of the brighter star. T he concept that an eclipsing body caused these luminosity variations was introduced by John Goodricke in 1783.
List of solar eclipses in the 21st century Mursili's eclipse
1. ^ Staf f (March 31, 1981). "Science Watch: A Really Big Syzygy" (Press release). T he New York Times. Retrieved 2008-02-29. 2. ^ http://www.in.gr/dictionary/lookup.asp? Word=%E5%EA%EB%E5%DF%F0%F9+++&x=0&y=0 3. ^ http://www.lingvozone.com/main.jsp? action=translation&do=dictionary&language_id_f rom=23&language_id_to=8&word=%CE% BB%CE%B5%CE%AF%CF%80%CF%89+&t.x=55&t.y=16 4. ^ http://translate.google.com/translate_t? prev=hp&hl=en&js=y&text=%CE%BB%CE%B5%CE%AF%CF%80%CF%89&sl=el&tl=en&hi story_state0=&swap=1# 5. ^ Espenak, Fred (September 21, 2007). "Glossary of Solar Eclipse Terms". NASA. Retrieved 2008-02-28. 6. ^ Green, Robin M. (1985). Spherical Astronomy . Oxf ord University Press. ISBN 0-521-317797. 7. ^ Espenak, Fred (July 12, 2007). "Eclipses and the Saros". NASA. Retrieved 2007-12-13. 8. ^ http://hermit.org/Eclipse/when_stats.html 9. ^ http://www.staf f .science.uu.nl/~gent0113/eclipse/eclipsecycles.htm 10. ^ Hipschman, R. "Solar Eclipse: Why Eclipses Happen". Retrieved 2008-12-01. 11. ^ Z ombeck, Martin V. (2006). Handbook of Space Astronomy and Astrophysics (T hird ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 48. ISBN 0-521-78242-2. 12. ^ Staf f (January 6, 2006). "Solar and Lunar Eclipses". NOAA. Retrieved 2007-05-02. 13. ^ Phillips, Tony (February 13, 2008). "Total Lunar Eclipse". NASA. Retrieved 2008-03-03. 14. ^ Ancient Timekeepers, http://blog.world-mysteries.com/science/ancient-timekeepers-part1-movements-of -the-earth/ 15. ^ 16. ^ Grif f in, Paul (2002). "Conf irmation of World's Oldest Solar Eclipse Recorded in Stone". T he Digital Universe. Retrieved 2007-05-02. 17. ^ See DIO 16 p.2 (2009). T hough those Greek and perhaps Babylonian astronomers who determined the three previously unsolved lunar motions were spread over more than f our centuries (263 BC to 160 AD), the math-indicated early eclipse records are all f rom a much smaller span: the 13th century BC. T he anciently attested Greek technique: use of eclipse cycles, automatically providing integral ratios, which is how all ancient astronomers' lunar motions were expressed. Long-eclipse-cycle-based reconstructions precisely produce all of the 24 digits appearing in the three attested ancient motions just cited: 6247 synod = 6695 anom (System A), 5458 synod = 5923 drac (Hipparchos), 3277 synod = 3512 anom (Planetary Hypotheses). By contrast, the System B motion, 251 synod = 269 anom (Aristarchos?), could have been determined without recourse to remote eclipse data, simply by using a f ew eclipse-pairs 4267 months apart. 18. ^ "Solar Eclipses in History and Mythology". Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Retrieved 2007-05-02. 19. ^ Girault, Simon (1592). Globe dv monde contenant un bref traite du ciel & de la terra. Langres, France. p. Fol. 8V. 20. ^ Hevelius, Johannes (1652). Observatio Eclipseos Solaris Gedani. Danzig, Poland.
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