Article ID: CBB901110388

Celestial shadows: From terror and myth to science and beauty (2024)

unapi

Abstract This paper tells a graphical story of the ancestral importance of the Sun as a seemingly eternal source of light and heat. It describes the terror produced by the sudden disappearance of the Sun in the middle of the day and the imaginative myths that these dark events have generated worldwide. Then the science will include a description of a total solar eclipse and what can be learnt from the extended atmosphere of the Sun, the corona, once it becomes visible against the darkened sky during the precious moments of totality. There are subtle distortions produced by powerful magnetic fields that modulate the shape of the corona along a solar cycle of activity of eleven years. And yet, as the fast drop in temperature and sudden darkness over the landscape just before totality is experienced, we still feel that primeval fear and terror forever embedded in our humanity.

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Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB901110388/

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Authors & Contributors
Bònoli, Fabrizio
Borrelli, Arianna
Close, Frank
Débarbat, Suzanne
Draxler, Sonja
Granada, Miguel A.
Journals
Journal for the History of Astronomy
Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry
Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage
Journal of Physics: Conference Series
Early Science and Medicine: A Journal for the Study of Science, Technology and Medicine in the Pre-modern Period
Indian Journal of History of Science
Publishers
Oxford University Press
Princeton University Press
Concepts
Sun
Stars; stellar astronomy
Astronomy
Light
Celestial mechanics
Cosmology
People
al-Jayyani, Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad Ibn Mu'adh
Bentley, Richard
Bruno, Giordano
Cassini, Jacques
Gregory, David
Halley, Edmond
Time Periods
18th century
19th century
20th century
Medieval
16th century
17th century
Places
Babylon (extinct city)
India
Mesopotamia
Spain
Macedonia
Arizona (U.S.)
Institutions
Università di Bologna
Lowell Observatory
Royal Society of London
Observatoire de Paris
Académie Royale des Sciences (France)
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