Science is for Sharing

🌞Eclipses 🌚  are heavenly visual feasts of celestial bodies hide and seek game with light and shadow. Indeed, they are rare events ! We need to be in the right place 🗺 and at right time  ⌚ to watch an eclipse unfurl. 💥How about watching a future eclipse now ? Yes, it is possible !   Curious to know ? 🤔 We can simulate it in our PC 💻 and enjoy. No need to travel far off. It would be truly interesting to watch it in advance and later wait at the right place to witness it. ❓ How to simulate a heavenly event ? Use the free open source Astronomy software  "Stellarium"  - to enjoy the realistic sky.⭐🌟⋆ It can be downloaded at  https://stellarium.org/ Set the location (latitude, longitude), change the time, play and watch !!! This would be really interesting and rewarding activity.  Now, let us see how an  Annular Solar Eclipse of  26 December 2019  📅 look like. An Annular Solar Eclipse...

Solar Eclipse (09 Mar 2016) is hardly visible over Tirupati. Here is an animated version (Figure (a)) of the simulation I have prepared using the free open source "Stellarium" software. The Sun rises over Tirupati by 06:23 IST. Meanwhile eclipse has already begun and being in penumbra region, it's partial eclipse over here. Click here to see the eclipse For reference, the figure (b) of eclipse locations are shown in the figure below (scroll down) which also shows time in Tirupati during the events.  (courtesy: timeanddate.com ) Figure (a): Animation of the solar eclipse (simulated) over Tirupati. 'E' indicates East Figure (b): How eclipse happens world wide (courtesy: timeanddate.com)

Hybrid graphene-quantum dot phototransistor. Image (c) Nature Nanotechnology (2012) doi:10.1038/nnano.2012.60 Engineers have used inexpensive materials to create a solar cell certified at a world-record 7.0 percent efficiency. The solar cell represents a 37 percent increase in efficiency over the previous certified record. A breakthrough in the development of colloidal quantum dot (CQD) films allowed the researchers from the University of Toronto and King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST) to develop the solar cell. Their work is featured in a letter published in Nature Nanotechnology. Here is the original article from Nature Nanotechnology (published last week of July,2012) http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/vaop/ncurrent/pdf/nnano.2012.127.pdf Hybrid graphene–quantum dot phototransistors with ultrahigh gain, Nature Nanotechnology (2012) doi:10.1038/nnano.2012.60 Read more at:  http://phys.org/news/2012-05-group-highly-sensitive-photodetector-grap...

Be prepared to watch a heavenly drama on 6 June 2012. The Venus can be seen as a black dot travelling across the Solar Disk. Here is my Simulation: Yes, it is the "Transit of Venus across the Sun" Path-- L to R Credit: Michael Zeiler, eclipse-maps.com India comes under the visibility of the event after Sunrise. See the graphic below: Thiruvananthapuram can view it right from sunrise to 10:22 AM. The graphic was prepared using the tool provided in  http://transitofvenus.nl/wp/where-when/local-transit-times/   You can change the location and see about your visibility to the drama. Also read the following blog for wonderful information and graphics. http://blogs.esa.int/venustransit/        (nice and informative blog by ESA) http://eclipse-maps.com/Eclipse-Maps/Transits.html     (Transit maps) http://sunearthday.nasa.gov/transitofvenus/ You can also find how to watch the event.... Follow safe way.... take care ...

Space weather starts at the sun.  It begins with an eruption such as a huge burst of light and radiation called a solar flare or a gigantic cloud of solar material called a coronal mass ejection (CME) .  The effects of those eruptions happen at Earth, or at least near-Earth space. Scientists monitor several kinds of space "weather" events -- geomagnetic storms, solar radiation storms, and radio blackouts – all caused by these immense explosions on the sun. They cause wide disruptions in Radio communications, power blackouts but for the beautiful aurora..... Read more :  http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/storms-on-sun.html http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/spaceweather/index.html

An apparent inconsistency has been diagnosed between interannual variations in the net radiation imbalance inferred from satellite measurements and upper-ocean heating rate from in situ measurements, and this inconsistency has been interpreted as ‘missing energy’. Where was it going? Now Scientists come up with an answer..... "Missing Energy" is in the Ocean  "Our data show that Earth has been accumulating heat in the ocean at a rate of half a watt per square meter (10.8 square feet), with no sign of a decline," Loeb said. "This extra energy will eventually find its way back into the atmosphere and increase temperatures on Earth." Read more: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-029 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2093947/Nasa-solves-mystery-Earths-missing-energy--going-sea-says-space-agency.html?ito=feeds-newsxml Paper:  http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ngeo1375.html#/access doi:10.1038/ngeo...

COLD PLASMA LAYER DETECTED HIGH ABOVE EARTH The new findings suggest that about two lbs. (1 kilogram) of cold plasma escape from Earth's atmosphere every second. As physicists further map cold plasma around Earth, they could discover more about how it reacts during solar storms and other events, deepening our understanding of space weather. Read more:  http://news.discovery.com/earth/earth-cold-plasma-layer-found-120127.html#mkcpgn=rssnws1

Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics Volume 74 , January 2012, Pages 232–237 Impact of a noon-time annular solar eclipse on the mixing layer height and vertical distribution of aerosols in the atmospheric boundary layer Manoj Kumar Mishra,  K. Rajeev ,  ,  Anish Kumar M. Nair,  K. Krishna Moorthy,  K. Parameswaran For full paper, click this link:  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jastp.2011.10.012 , Abstract Impact of the long duration noontime annular solar eclipse on 15 January 2010 on the vertical distribution of aerosols and mixing layer height ( H M ) in a well-developed convective atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) has been investigated using continuous Lidar observations over a tropical coastal station, Thumba (8.5°N, 76.9°E). This study shows that  H M  has decreased from its peak value of ∼1800 m at 12:00 h to ∼1000 m following the annular phase of the eclipse (13:17 h), whil...

My colleague Mr.Sobhan Kumar Kompalli, Scientist in Space Physics Laboratory has clicked more than 100 snaps of the beautiful 'Lunar Eclipse' that entertained earthlings on 10-Dec-2011. Here is a matrix of few selected snaps by the  amateur  photographer. Also have a view of the Simulated Lunar Eclipse ( animation)  which I generated using the open source software 'Stellarium'. You are welcome to watch  the drama unfold......! Photograph by Mr.Sobhan Kumar Kompalli (sobhan1urs@gmail.com)

Here is how SOLSTICE and EQUINOX mean in reality. Equinox ==== Sun's rays fall equally in both Hemisphere..... Solstice  ==== Sun's rays falls on more area in summer hemisphere. I have made this Equinox-Solstice matrix for simple and clear understanding. We were all familiar with the cartoon graphics..... now this is the reality... These images are by Meteosat in VIS channel. Image courtesy:Dundee Satellite Receiving station.

Water Vapour is in Excess of Saturation in the Atmosphere of Mars,  reveals the results from the SPICAM spectrometer on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft. It measured the altitudinal profile of water vapour in the martian atmosphere..... Here is the published paper: "Evidence of Water Vapor in Excess of Saturation in the Atmosphere of Mars", by L. Maltagliati, F. Montmessin, A. Fedorova, O. Korablev, F. Forget, and J.-L. Bertaux, published in the 30 September 2011 issue of Science. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/333/6051/1868.abstract Read a very good report here: http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-09-supersaturation-martian-atmosphere.html

                World Space Week  Resource Material prepared by our Team has been uploaded in the official WEBsite. here is it . http://www.vssc.gov.in:8080/ wsw2011/index.jsp http://www.vssc.gov.in:8080/ wsw2011/wswatschools.html Download PDF http://www.vssc.gov.in:8080/ wsw2011/downloads/WSW_2011_ Resourcematerial.pdf http://www.vssc.gov.in:8080/ wsw2011/downloads/WSW_ Handbook.pdf Materials for Media already sent...  ...... will be published/ relayed soon...! Celebrate the 'Golden jubilee of Human Space Flight'

This is how Solstice and Equinox look like ....... ....... a wider perspective.... ......view from space. Equinox ------ Sun overhead equator ---- sunlight falls equally in both Hemispheres. Solstice  ------ Sun is overhead northern/ southernmost position ---- sunlight falls maximum in Summer Hemispheres. I have taken the selected days visible imagery from Meteosat and arranged them in a 2x2 matrix..... Image courtesy: Dundee Satellite Receiving Station. (Isn't it better and give real information than the long used Inspiration obtained from: Seeing Equinoxes and Solstices from Space http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=52248

   On July 5th, a comet  committed suicide by driving directly to the 'SUN'. NASA released it's video footage  showing the final stages of the comet's death plunge. It was observed by the ' SO lar H eliospheric O bservatory' and ' S olar D ynamics O bservatory'. source: http://youtu.be/rk9pfbh_iCM courtesy: Science@NASA              ScienceAtNASA's Channel