SCOTT BROCATO:
The annular solar eclipse will be taking place this weekend. What is the significance of an annular solar eclipse, and how often does it occur?
DR. JUIE SHETYE:
So the word “annular”, it's actually the way the moon blocks the sun from Earth. So basically we have partial eclipses and we have total solar eclipses. A partial eclipse is when the moon’s shadow is covering part of the sun; a total (eclipse) is when it completely covers the part of the sun. And this happened because the size of the moon and the size of the sun are kind of related from our point of view, though they are not really related since (the sun is) much larger, but it's much further away from the moon. So from our point of view, both of them appear the same size during an eclipse. And what happens in a total solar eclipse is that the moon is a little bit closer to Earth, so it appears a little bit bigger than the sun and blocks the whole sun. In terms of annular eclipse, the moon is actually further away from Earth relatively, and so it blocks only a small portion of the sun, but it's not partial. We still get the whole disk of the sun kind of block, except like there's going to be that “ring of fire” that we call. So there's going to be, like, a bright orangey streak, or that streak that you would always see in this during this eclipse.
So the frequency that we will see another annular eclipse like this, or another eclipse that would have significant totality, it's going to be probably in the next 40 years, you know. So it's going to be a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the annular eclipse, and then also a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the total eclipse.
SCOTT BROCATO:
Well, the Agricultural Science Center at Artesia is going to be under a path of totality. So tell us about the experimental event that you're organizing for this occasion.
DR. JUIE SHETYE:
The project involves launching some high-altitude scientific balloons that carry sensors to measure how the Earth's atmosphere is changing when the eclipse happens. So we want to look for some waves that happen in the earth's atmosphere. These waves can be different waves. A few years ago, they detected ball waves, so we are trying to understand what effect the eclipse is causing on the atmosphere. And the reason why we have to do this around totality, for example, (is that) our Artesia Science Center is going to have nearly 4 minutes of totality. And it's a lot. So you can imagine that totality usually lasts a minute or two, so having an annular eclipse gives us an opportunity for the totality to be a little longer, and then being under the path makes it even more special.
SCOTT BROCATO:
Well, generally speaking, what kind of effects does a solar eclipse have, or could have, on Earth's atmosphere, and nature in general?
DR. JUIE SHETYE:
So in terms of Earth's atmosphere, what happens during an eclipse is a sudden drop in temperature and density. This drop in temperature and density, because it's a sudden thing, it creates a lot of turbulence in Earth's atmosphere. My interaction is the particles from the sun interacting with earth. And those can change.
Now in terms of us, we are going to see amazing things happening. So we see things from an evening night sky, and we're like, OK, it's night time. But animals and pets are going to react. Animals and pets, they react in a way that—they're completely confused, in a way. It's suddenly dark, and so they don't get it. Like, why is it nighttime during the day? So you can see some particular behaviors with pet animals. I'm going to take my dogs and see what they feel.
Birds, they kind of think that it's time to sleep, so they suddenly stop chirping, because they think that it's nighttime. So you see these changes around. It's an amazing experience to witness, and also to see everything around you kind of reacting to that.
SCOTT BROCATO:
Well, the event this weekend, is that for students only?
DR. JUIE SHETYE:
No. During the event we are going to have a telescope and some spotters. These are, like two different types of instruments where people can see the eclipse. We also have eclipse glasses for the audience to come and view it from the Science Center. Predominantly, it is going to be us doing the experiments, (like) launching the balloons. But we are open for anyone to come to the grounds and view the eclipse with us.
SCOTT BROCATO:
And about what time will the eclipse happen?
DR. JUIE SHETYE:
So it's going to start around 9:00 and it's going to end just after midday. Totality is going to be 4 minutes, around 10:40.
SCOTT BROCATO:
Dr. Shetye, thank you for joining us on KRWG Public Media and talking with us about this.
DR. JUIE SHETYE:
Thanks. Thanks for inviting me.
