Eclipse

This article is about astronomical eclipses. For other uses of the term, see Eclipse (disambiguation).

"Total eclipse" redirects here.

This view from the International Space Station shows the shadow of the Moon cast upon the eastern Mediterranean Sea near Cyprus. NASA image.

An eclipse (Ancient Greek noun έκλειψις (ékleipsis), from verb εκλείπω (ekleípō), "I vanish," a combination of prefix εκ- (ek-), from preposition εκ, εξ (ek, ex), "out," and of verb λείπω (leípō), "I leave") is an astronomical event that occurs when one celestial object moves into the shadow of another. The term is most often used to describe either a solar eclipse, when the Moon's shadow crosses the Earth's surface, or a lunar eclipse, when the Moon moves into the shadow of Earth. However, it can also refer to such events beyond the Earth-Moon system: for example, a planet moving into the shadow cast by one of its moons, a moon passing into the shadow cast by its parent planet, or a moon passing into the shadow of another moon. An eclipse is a type of syzygy, as are transits and occultations.

Shadow

Umbra and penumbra cast by a solid object occulting a light source.

An eclipse occurs when there is a linear arrangement between two solid celestial bodies and a star. The shadow cast by the object closest to the star intersects the more distant body, lowering the amount of luminosity reaching the surface. The region of shadow cast by the occulting body is divided into an umbra, where the radiation from the star's photosphere is completely blocked, and a penumbra, where only a portion of the radiation is blocked.

A total eclipse will occur when the observer is located within the umbra of the occulting body. For spherical bodies, when the occluding object is smaller than the star, the umbra forms a cone whose length is determined by the distance to the star times the ratio of the occulting object's diameter to the star's diameter. If the occulting body has an atmosphere, however, some of the luminosity of the star can be refracted into the volume of the umbra. This occurs, for example, during an eclipse of the Moon by the Earth—producing a faint, ruddy illumination of the Moon even at totality.

Earth-Moon System

An eclipse involving the Sun, Earth and Moon can occur only when they are nearly in a straight line. 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). The Sun, Earth and nodes are aligned twice a year, and eclipses can occur during a period of about two months around these times. There can be from four to seven eclipses in a calendar year, which repeat according to various eclipse cycles, such as the Saros cycle.

Solar eclipse

An eclipse of the Sun by the Moon is termed a solar eclipse. Records of solar eclipses have been kept since ancient times. A Syrian clay tablet records a solar eclipse on May 3, 1375 B.C.E., while a stone in Ireland records an eclipse on November 30, 3340 B.C.E. 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. Eclipse dates can also be used for chronological dating of historical records.

Totality during the 1999 solar eclipse. Solar prominences can be seen along the limb (in red) as well as extensive coronal filaments.

The type of solar eclipse event depends on the distance of the Moon from 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 surface of the Earth, the Sun is only partially occluded, resulting in an annular eclipse. Partial solar eclipses occur when the viewer is inside the penumbra.

Solar eclipses are relatively brief events that can only be viewed in totality along a relatively narrow track. Under the most favorable circumstances, a total solar eclipse can last for 7 minutes, 40 seconds, and can be viewed along a track that is up to 250 km wide. However, the region where partial totality can be observed is much larger. The Moon's umbra will advance eastward at a rate of 1,700 km/h, until it no longer intersects the Earth.

During a solar eclipse, the Moon can sometimes perfectly cover the Sun because its apparent size is nearly the same as the Sun when viewed from the Earth. A solar eclipse is actually a misnomer; the phenomenon is more correctly described as an occultation.

Lunar eclipse

The progression of a lunar eclipse. Totality is shown with the last two images to lower right. These required a longer exposure time to make the details visible.

Lunar eclipses occur when the Moon passes through the Earth's shadow. Since this occurs only when the Moon is on the far side of the Earth from the Sun, lunar eclipses only occur when there is a full moon. Unlike a solar eclipse, an eclipse of the Moon can be observed from nearly an entire hemisphere. For this reason it is much more common to observe a lunar eclipse from a given location. A lunar eclipse also lasts longer, taking several hours to complete, and totality can last from 30 minutes to an hour.

There 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 within the Earth's umbra. Total lunar eclipses pass through all three phases. Even during a total lunar eclipse, however, the Moon is not completely dark. Sunlight refracted through the Earth's atmosphere intersects the umbra and provides a faint illumination. Much as in a sunset, the atmosphere tends to scatter light with shorter wavelengths, so the illumination of the Moon by refracted light has a red hue.

Other planets

Eclipses are impossible on Mercury and Venus, which have no moons. Both have been observed to transit across the face of the Sun, however. On Mars, only partial solar eclipses are possible, because neither of its moons is large enough to cover the Sun's disc as seen from the surface of the planet. (Lunar eclipses are not only possible, but common.) Martian eclipses have been photographed from both the surface of Mars and from orbit.^{[citation needed]}

A picture of Jupiter and its moon Io taken by Hubble. The black spot is Io's shadow.

Saturn eclipses the Sun as seen from the Cassini–Huygens space probe

The gas giant planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) have many moons and thus frequently display eclipses. The most striking involve Jupiter, which has four large moons and a low axial tilt, making eclipses more frequent: it is common to see the larger moons casting circular shadows upon Jupiter's cloudtops. On the other three giants, eclipses only occur at certain periods during the planet's orbit, due to their higher axial tilts.

The eclipses of the Galilean moons by Jupiter became accurately predictable once their orbital elements were known. During the 1670s, it was discovered that these events were occurring about 17 minutes later than expected when Jupiter was on the far side of the Sun. Ole Rømer deduced that the delay was caused by the time needed for light to travel from Jupiter to the Earth. This was used to produce the first estimate of the speed of light.

The timing of the Jovian satellite eclipses were 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 difference could be computed by accurately observing the local time of the eclipse. The time difference gives the longitude of the observer because every hour of difference corresponded to 15° around the Earth's equator. This technique was used, for example, by Giovanni D. Cassini in 1679 to re-map France.

Pluto, with its large moon Charon, is also the site of many eclipses.^{[citation needed]}

Eclipsing binaries

A binary star system consists of two stars that orbit around their common center of mass. The 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 front of each other. The result is a type of extrinsic variable star system called an eclipsing binary.

The maximum luminosity of an eclipsing binary system is equal to the sum of the luminosity contributions from the individual stars. When one star passes in front of the other, the luminosity of the system is seen to decrease. The luminosity returns to normal once the two stars are no longer in alignment.

The first 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 20.867 days the magnitude decreases to 3.4 for more than 9 hours. This is caused by the passage of the dimmer member of the pair in front of the brighter star. The concept that an eclipsing body caused these luminosity variations was introduced by John Goodricke in 1783.

See also

• Eclipse cycle
• Saros cycle
• Syzygy
• Mursili's eclipse

External links

• A Catalogue of Eclipse Cycles
• Search 5,000 years of eclipses (notice: loads slowly)
• NASA eclipse home page
• International Astronomical Union's Working Group on Solar Eclipses
• Solar and Lunar Eclipse Image Gallery
• Interactive eclipse maps site
• Prof. Druckmüller's eclipse photography site
• Dan McGlaun's Total Eclipse web site
• Williams College eclipse collection of images
• Why do Hindus believe that the mythological demons Rahu and Ketu cause solar eclipses?