Solar eclipse rumors include radiation, food poisoning, and more
What Happens When the Sun’s Radiation Gets Closer to the Moon, or Why Does the Moon Turn Black During a Solar Eclipse?
In reality, a solar eclipse brings a temporary sharp drop in solar radiation — an event that ham radio operators have been eagerly anticipating for months, with competitions and experiments looking to fill the Earth’s suddenly radiation-free ionosphere with radio signals.
You won’t be harmed by the radiation from the sun’s corona. It’s only a safe place to look at the sun without eye protection when the sun’s brightness is fully obscured by the moon and its corona is visible.
Another notion that seems to be rooted in concern about radiation. NASA uses an example to show people that they’re already soaking in it, citing the particles from the sun’s fusion.
If the sun is above or below the sky, your body is attacked by trillions of these plasmons every second. Every few minutes, every atom in your body is 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 gives a possible scenario. What if some bad potato salad makes people sick during an eclipse? The agency says food poisoning is very common and shouldn’t be blamed on a rare event.
Other myths — such as the idea that the moon turns black during an eclipse, or that the Earth’s two poles don’t see eclipses — are simply false, the agency says.
Rahu and Ketu: Who Wants to Eat the Sun? Are You Interested? Planning an Annual Exam If You’re Going to Miss a Total Solar Eclipse
People in totality can expect a sudden drop in temperature. Humans can experience odd visual effects when the stars and planets become visible in the middle of the day.
Ojibwe and other Indigenous peoples in the Great Lakes region have a story about a boy and his sister who trap the sun after it burns him.
In many folktales, magical animals try to eat the sun or the moon. In Hindu mythology, a serpent god, Rahu Ketu, wanted to eat the sun — but then his head was cut off. That created two new entities, Rahu and Ketu, according to the Folklife Today blog from the Library of Congress.
Those are some of the ideas people have been asking about — and that experts have been pooh-poohing — as people in North America anticipated seeing a total eclipse, from Mazatlán to Montreal.
Monday’s total solar eclipse begins over Mexico’s Pacific Coast at around 11:07 a.m. PT, moving east through Texas and up to Maine, finally leaving the continent on Newfoundland’s Atlantic coast.
As Folklife Today notes, in many cultures, humans take up the duty of ending an eclipse, often by making noise and beating on drums or gongs to dispel the spirit that’s attempting to take the sun.
It is always a good idea to get your eyes checked regardless of whether or not there is an eclipse. So if you’re worried at all, go ahead and use the opportunity to schedule your annual exam.
Far more people turned up in emergency rooms worried that they’d damaged their eyes. Many complained of watery eyes or blurry vision but in most cases they were fine according to Avnish, who works at the New York eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai.
One eye clinic in Buffalo, NY is providing free eye check-up after the eclipse of April 8 observing Supernova Y1711-1111
“It’s so bright that we’re not actually capable of looking at it without either tearing or sort of not really feeling comfortable staring at this ball of light,” Deobhakta says.
One eye clinic in Buffalo, NY is providing free eye checks after the eclipse on April 8.
NASA has refuted the myths surrounding solar eclipses, saying that they are false. “During a solar eclipse, the Sun’s radiation is closer to the Moon, causing particles from the sun’s fusion to reach the Earth’s surface,” NASA said. “When the Sun’s radiation is closer to the Moon, the corona or outer layer of the sun is obscured by the Moon,” it added.