A partial eclipse of the sun will be visible from Bhubaneswar from 8:20 am to 11: 28 am on Thursday, the Met Centre at Bhubaneswar said in an advisory on Wednesday. The eclipse is expected to last for three hours.
The fullest eclipse would occur at 9:46 am with the maximum obscuration of 54.7 per cent.
A solar eclipse occurs when the moon comes in between the earth and the sun and when all the three bodies are aligned.
An annular eclipse occurs when the moon covers the sun's centre, leaving the sun's outer edges visible to form a 'ring of fire' or annulus around the moon.
Here are some of the common myths around eclipse busted by scientists:
No, the viewing the eclipse won’t make you blind
According to NASA scientists, a lot of people believe that a solar eclipse produces harmful rays that cause blindness. However, scientists say deny this myth.
According to scientists, during an eclipse, when the moon completely covers the sun, the brilliant corona emits only electromagnetic radiation. Although this radiation is a million times fainter than the sunrays itself and, therefore, it is not possible for the radiation to cross 150 kilometres of space and cut through our atmosphere and cause blindness.
No, the eclipse won’t harm a pregnant person
Taking forward the idea that harmful radiation is emitted during an eclipse, people also believe that pregnant people should not view the eclipse or step out of the house during an eclipse. The scientists declare this also as a myth. The electromagnetic radiation that is emitted during an eclipse looks like coloured light and is not at all harmful.
No, the eclipse doesn’t poison your food
As far as myths can go about eclipses, this one is a little too much. Some people are convinced that cooking food during an eclipse will cause it to be poisoned by the eclipse. However, scientists from Kerala have confirmed that there is no truth to this statement.
North and South poles also experience solar eclipses
With no idea about the reason, some people believe that the North and South poles do nott experience solar eclipses, which of course the scientists say isn’t true. According to scientists, there is nothing significantly different for the North and South poles from an astronomical standpoint. Therefore, nothing suggests that the two extreme points on earth do not experience solar eclipses.
Eclipses do not invite bad luck
If any two things occur at the same time, it is not necessary that both are related are caused due to each other. Busting the myth that eclipses bring bad luck, scientists say that the phenomenon to remember occasions when two things happened together and forget the other times when nothing happened is called the Confirmation Bias.
