Partial solar eclipse of 2022: Interesting myths and facts about surya grahan

A solar eclipse or surya grahan takes place when the moon passes in a direct line between the earth and the sun and the moon’s shadow travels above the Earth’s surface while the sun’s light (as seen from earth) is blocked out but a partial solar eclipse is one where the Earth moves through the lunar penumbra as the moon travels between the earth and the sun. It is referred to as ‘partial’ because the moon does not block the entirety of the sun, when witnessed from the Earth.

Did you know we will see four eclipses this year – two of the sun and two of the moon? A partial solar eclipse is slated to take place on Saturday, April 30, 2022 and from where a total eclipse can be seen, the dark shadow cone of the moon, will completely miss the Earth and pass approximately 750 miles or 1,200 kilometers below the South Pole.

It will involve the second of two new moons in the month of April, colloquially known as a “Black Moon.” The partial solar eclipse will be a result of the moon’s outer shadow, or penumbra, scraping a part of the Southern Hemisphere.

According to Space.com, this partial solar eclipse will be visible near sunset across a swath of the South Pacific and Southern Oceans, as well as in southern and western portions of South America, including Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, southern Peru southern Bolivia, western Paraguay and a tiny slice of Brazil.

Ahead of the first surya grahan this year, here are some interesting myths and facts about partial solar eclipse:

1. Eclipses will poison any food that is prepared during the event.

NASA scientists debunk the myth saying, “Related to the false idea of harmful solar rays is that during a total solar eclipse, some kind of radiation is produced that will harm your food. If that were the case, the same radiations would harm the food in your pantry, or crops in the field. The basic idea is that total solar eclipses are terrifying and their ghostly green coronae look frightening, so it is natural to want to make up fearful stories about them and look for coincidences among events around you. If someone is accidentally food-poisoned with potato salad during an eclipse, some might argue that the event was related to the eclipse itself even though hundreds of other people at the same location were not at all affected.”

2. Eclipses are harbingers of something very bad about to happen.

“A classic case of what psychologists call Confirmation Bias is that we tend to remember all the occasions when two things happened together, but forget all of the other times when they did not. This gives us a biased view of causes and effects that we remember easily, because the human brain is predisposed to looking for, and remembering, patterns that can be used as survival rules-of-thumb. Total solar eclipses are not often recorded in the historical record, but they do tend to be recorded when they coincide with other historical events. For example in 763 B.C., early Assyrian records mention an eclipse in the same passage as an insurrection in the city of Ashur, now known as Qal’at Sherqat in Iraq, suggesting that the ancient people linked the two in their minds. Or when King Henry I of England, the son of William the Conqueror, died in A.D. 1133, the event coincided with a total solar eclipse. With a little work you can also find numerous cases when something good happened!” NASA asserts.

3. If you are pregnant you should not watch an eclipse because it can harm your baby

“This is related to the previous false idea that harmful radiations are emitted during a total solar eclipse. Although the electromagnetic radiation from the corona, seen as light, is perfectly safe, there is another form of radiation that travels to Earth from the sun. Deep in the solar interior where nuclear fusion takes place to light the sun, particles called neutrinos are born, and zip unimpeded out of the sun and into space. They also pass through the solid body of the moon during the eclipse and a second or so later reach Earth and pass through it too! Every second, your body is pelted by trillions of these neutrinos no matter if the sun is above or below the horizon. The only consequence is that every few minutes a few atoms in your body are transmuted into a different isotope by absorbing a neutrino. This is an entirely harmless effect and would not harm you, or if you are pregnant, the developing fetus,” NASA reveals.

Some other interesting facts about partial solar eclipse are:

1. Partial solar eclipses can be seen up to 3,000 miles from the “track” of totality.

2. According to Physics Professor Richard Olenick, Ph.D at University of Dallas, local animals and birds often prepare for sleep or behave confusedly during an eclipse and local temperatures often drop 20 degrees or more near totality.

3. The partial solar eclipse on April 30 will see the moon reach a new phase 23 hours and 26 minutes before it reaches the node and that will be too far away to allow the moon to pass directly in front of the sun. However, it will still just be near enough to allow the moon to, cover a part of the sun at the very least.

4. The partial solar eclipse phase can last over an hour.

5. DO NOT LOOK DIRECTLY TOWARD THE SUN nor look through a telescope, even with a specialized filter, unless you really know what you are doing, if you find yourself within a viewing zone of this or any other solar eclipse.