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Beautiful Conspiracies by Nature - Part 1

In this blog, I will try to illustrate beautiful natural wonders, which are the way because nature wanted us to see them that way...no other reason long or short....

Let's call our roll list,

  1. Solar Eclipse
We all know that solar eclipse are occur because moon obstructs sun's light or in a more layman's term, moon casts it's shadow on earth when it transits between earth and sun. But few might have pondered upon the fact that the mystic diamond ring and total solar eclipse (when it virtually becomes dark, in a small part of earth) have a more subtle origin.

These happen because from earth surface, lunar and solar discs looks of same size, and that's the reason why moon exactly covers the solar disc during eclipse. The exactness is more crucial in the formation of diamond ring during eclipse.
In case, somebody is wondering, this is Diamond Ring.
But isn't sun and moon incomparable in sizes? Then how come they have similar sized discs?
Yes, sun and moon are like a football field and a small marble, but moon's proximity to earth makes it much bigger or in other words, sun's remoteness makes it smaller to appear from earth. This figure below illustrates this better...

Notice that the angle subtended by moon and sun are same on earth. This angle is also called as "angular spread". Do some simple mathematics and you would get a relation between diameter of sun, moon and distance between earth and both.

r_sun/d_sun = r_moon/d_moon

where, r_sun and r_moon are distances between earth and sun and moon respectively, while d_sun and d_moon are the diameters of sun and moon respectively.
Now, what causes this phenomenon? 
Nothing, simple chance. Nature wanted us to feast on this spectacular event every year.

What would have happened, if not this?
Well, then we would be able to see solar eclipse in it's present glory. If moon would have been a bit more smaller or a bit more nearer to us, it would block sun completely thus rendering us incapable from watching diamond ring. 

ON the other hand, if it would have been a bit more smaller or a bit more farther from us, then it would have deprived us of the total solar eclipse...Rays of light would escape and reach to earth even when moon is exactly in between earth and sun.

But anyway, this is going to happen in the next million or so year, as moon is going farther and farther from earth, and that would have more drastic effects than depriving us of a beautiful natural phenomenon.


To be continued...

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Location: Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

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