Lunar Eclipse Graces March

The night skies of this spring month offer superb sights of perplexing planets, sensational stars that concoct confounding constellations, and numerous bewildering bodies residing all over the heavens. The elusive planet Mercury and the romantic planet Venus can be tersely viewed in the western sky after dusk. They are creeping cautiously towards the western horizon with the stars that sketch the sprawling constellation Pisces (fishes). They cannot be relished after the middle of the month because of their proximity to the sun. Mercury would arrive at its maximum eastern elongation from the Sun on 08 March. 

It would be at its loftiest position above the horizon in the evening sky. On 04 March, Mercury's 88-day elliptical path around the Sun will carry it to its closest location to the Sun (its perihelion) at ostensibly 0.31 AU from the Sun. Mercury's orbit pushes it towards the Sun more than to Earth, meaning that it always appears adjacent to the Sun and is lost mostly in the Sun's glare. It is observable for limited weeks each time it undertakes supreme separation from the Sun (moments referred to as greatest elongation). These apparitions repeat roughly once every three to four months. One should never point binoculars or telescopes at an object close to the Sun. Doing so may result in immediate and permanent blindness. The ruddy planet Mars can be manifested in the eastern sky after sunset. It would be ascending in the southern sky for a few hours. 

It will dance down towards the southwestern horizon after midnight. It would be mingling merrily with the scintillating stars in the comely constellation Gemini (twins), which would reputedly resemble two thin figures with stars Castor (Kasturi) and Pollux (Punarbasu) that are shimmering sweetly above Mars. The orange-hued star Pollux is puzzlingly 34 light-years away. Castor is sparsely 52 light-years away. Castor would indicate a quaint and quirky arrangement of six gravitationally bound stars. An extraordinary Eskimo nebula delightfully depicting a parka-hooded person’s countenance would bejewel Gemini. 

It would be 6,500 light-years away. The mammoth planet Jupiter and its magnificent moons can be marvelled at in the constellation Taurus (bull) after nightfall in the southwestern sky. It would be sinking towards the horizon by midnight. The alluring star Aldebaran (Rohini) would be sparkling splendidly below Jupiter. It is putatively 65 light-years away and palpably evident as the follower in the Arabic language. The ringed planet Saturn stays away from sky-gazers this month. 

It is too low to be seen in the western sky after sundown. It is sailing through the constellation Aquarius (water bearer) during the daytime. Planet Uranus can be glimpsed shortly during twilight in the western sky in the constellation Taurus. It would be dipping towards the western horizon before midnight. Jupiter can be spotted beaconing bemusingly from the eastern side. The far-flung planet Neptune cannot be perceived this month. It drifts across commanding Pisces and vanishes in solar brilliance.

 The full moon (joyfully multi-colourful Holi Purmina) would betide on 14 March, while the new moon would befall on 29 March. The full moon is popularly picked as the worm moon because during this time of year the ground would begin to soften and the earthworms would be active. On 14 March, a total lunar eclipse would transpire when the moon passes through the earth's dark shadow or umbra. During this type of eclipse, the moon gets gradually tenebrous and then turns rusty red. 

The eclipse will be visible throughout North America, Mexico, Central America, and South America, but not to us. The March equinox would occur on 29 March, when the Sun will shine directly on the equator and there will be nearly equal amounts of day and night throughout the world. It would herald the first day of spring (vernal equinox) in the Northern Hemisphere and the first day of fall (autumnal equinox) in the Southern Hemisphere. On 29 March, a puny partial solar eclipse would crop up when the moon covers a petite portion of the sun, sometimes recalling a bizarre bite taken out of a tasty cookie.

 A partial solar eclipse can be safely witnessed with a special solar filter or by peering at the Sun's reflection. This eclipse will be best watched from Greenland and most of northern Europe and northern Russia and Canada, but again not live from our locality. 

NASA's newly launched craft from Florida atop a SpaceX rocket with instruments for conducting various experiments and delving for water deposits on the moon's surface, especially in the shadowed craters near its poles, that would be vital for future lunar missions. Our mesmerising moon is reluctantly receding from us at a scant 3.81 centimetres per year. Furthermore, US Firefly Company’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 Lander has successfully touched down lately with sophisticated equipment on the moon. This operation highlights the NASA-industry partnership aimed at reducing costs and supporting Artemis, the program designed to return astronauts to the moon. Till now, the US, Russia, China, India, and Japan have made landings on the moon.

 Arcane asteroid 29 Amphitrite can be admired with the stars in the zodiacal constellation Leo (lion) in the eastern crepuscular sky as dusk fades to darkness. It will be in the southern sky till the wee hours after midnight. It will then dive towards the western horizon. This asteroid tumbles around the Sun between Mars and Jupiter in the main asteroid belt. It is estimated to be approximately 200 kilometres in diameter. In Greek mythology, Amphitrite was a serene sea goddess, wife of Poseidon and coveted queen of the sea. NASA has not classified Amphitrite as potentially hazardous because its trajectory does not bring it in Earth’s neighbourhood. Amphitrite zooms around the Sun every 1490 days, venturing within 2.37 AU and reaching 2.74 AU from the Sun. It spins one rotation every 5.39 hours. 

It would be fleeting through and cavorting comfortably (looking like lambent light) with the stars that outline the charming constellation Leo. The resplendent star Regulus (Magha) would be effulgent in its vicinity. Regulus (translated to little king in Latin) has been a queer quadruple star (composed of four stars) that has been organised into two pairs. They would be barely 79 light-years from the Sun. 

Regulus, along with five stygian stars, has collectively been designated as the sickle or reversed question mark asterism. One astronomical unit (AU) denotes the mean distance between the Sun and Earth. It measures about 150 million kilometres. Astronomers have divulged remarkably powerful, ferocious winds on the eerie exoplanet WASP-127b, uncovered over 500 light-years from Earth. They have clocked at an unimaginable 33 thousand kilometres per hour, representing the fastest jet stream ever identified on any planet. 

Earth's tornadoes and hurricanes can cause severe damage, but the wayward winds on WASP-127b exist in an entirely different dimension. Discovered in 2016, it is slightly larger than planet Jupiter but much less dense. It has intrigued scientists with its unique characteristics. Recent revelations on supersonic gales circling its equator, creating unparalleled atmospheric dynamics, have been obtained from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT) in Chile and have presented fresh findings into extreme weather patterns in afar entities. 

Part of the atmosphere of this planet is rushing towards us at zippy velocity while another component is moving away from us at baffling brisk speed. 

The strange signals show that there are swift, supersonic storms whizzing around the planet's equator. At a staggering speed of an amazing nine kilometres per second, they move six times faster than the planet's rotational velocity. They set a record, vastly surpassing blue gigantic icy planet Neptune's most rapid wind speeds of a mystifying 1800 kilometres per hour, which has been the highest value within our Solar System. The average span between Neptune, with agreeably 16 moons, and the Sun is 4.5 billion kilometres (specifically 30.1 AU). 

It completes one circuit in an assumable 164.79 years. Neptune's atmosphere is allegedly 80 percent hydrogen and 19 percent helium with sparse traces of methane. Its equatorial diameter suggests, eponymously, 49.5 thousand kilometres. Understanding the vagaries of exoplanets would help us shed light on the origins of our Solar System. Gas giant WASP-127b hurtles around G-type star. It is presumably 0.0484 AU from it. It dwells in the congenial constellation Virgo (maiden) with the lone bluish-white double star Spica (Chitra), which would be utterly 250 light-years away. 

(Dr. Shah is an academician at NAST and patron of NASO.)