What is the scientific significance of solar eclipse observation?

The observation of solar eclipse is not only spectacular and shocking, but also of great scientific significance, especially the observation of total solar eclipse.

The brilliant brilliance of the sun makes the sky around it so bright that it hides all other celestial bodies. In this context, it is obviously very difficult to observe and analyze the sun itself and the space around it. When the total solar eclipse occurs, people have the opportunity to do this kind of work more easily.

First of all, during the total solar eclipse, the sun's chromosphere and corona, which are rarely seen at ordinary times, appear directly in front of us, providing astronomers with an excellent opportunity to study them. By studying them, we can get a lot of valuable information about the sun and understand the composition, temperature, structure and activities of the solar atmosphere.

For example, as early as 1605, Kepler discovered that there would be weak light around the sun during a total solar eclipse. 1706, Cassini, director of the Paris Observatory, called this light "corona". But since then, in 180, people suspected that this kind of light was not a real solar structure, but was scattered by sunlight at the edge of the sun, or the atmosphere at the edge of the moon was unevenly heated (now we know that the moon has no atmosphere at all), or an optical phenomenon caused by the scattering of the earth's atmosphere.

Until the rise of spectral observation technology, the chemical composition of the light source can be known by shooting the celestial spectrum in some way and then analyzing the spectral lines in the spectrum-because each chemical element has a fixed spectral line. Scientists use the short time of the total solar eclipse to photograph the spectrum of the corona and analyze its spectral line characteristics.

Through the observation of many eclipses, it is finally proved that the corona is a real part of the solar atmosphere. In addition, it was also found that there were many mysterious and unrecognizable spectral lines in the corona spectrum. At first, they thought it was a new element that did not exist on the earth and named it "Krypton". Later, it was found that it was just a spectral line emitted by atoms of known elements in a special state of high temperature and thinness.

For another example, in 1868, through the observation of chromosphere and prominence during the Indian total solar eclipse, scientists found a bright yellow spectral line, which was different from any known element on the earth at that time and could not be reproduced in the laboratory. So some scientists thought it was an element only found in the sun and named it "helium", but many scientists did not agree.

It was not until 30 years later that another scientist got a gas sample of yttrium uranium mine that this spectral line was reproduced in the laboratory. At this point, the position of "helium" as a new element has been consolidated, which also proves that the sun is not mysterious and there is no special element that is not found on the earth.

The above two examples show that the scientific observation of the total solar eclipse can greatly deepen our understanding of the world, and at the same time, it can also effectively promote the development of other related disciplines.

In addition, the solar eclipse can provide a good opportunity to study the relationship between the sun and the earth. The sun is closely related to the earth. When there is strong activity on the sun, its far ultraviolet rays, X-rays and particle radiation will be enhanced, which will disturb the earth's magnetic field and ionosphere and produce a series of geophysical effects such as magnetic storm, aurora disturbance and short-wave communication interruption.

During the total solar eclipse, various geophysical phenomena changed because the moon gradually covered various radiation sources on the surface of the sun. Therefore, it is of practical significance to observe and study various geophysical effects during the total solar eclipse, which has become one of the important contents in the observation and research of the total solar eclipse.

Observing and studying the total solar eclipse will also help to find planets in the orbits of Jupiter and Mercury nearby. We can measure the bending of starlight when it passes near the sun, thus testing the general theory of relativity and studying the nature of gravity. We can study the properties of interplanetary dust near the ecliptic; Can study the optical, structural and chemical properties of the earth's atmosphere; You can study the influence of biological clock on biology; Wait a minute.

When a total solar eclipse occurs, scientists usually conduct scientific research from the following aspects:

(1) Optical and Radio Observations of the Sun Chromosphere and Corona High-resolution spectral measurements of the Chromosphere and Corona are made by professional observation equipment, so as to better understand the fine structure and chemical composition of the Chromosphere and Corona and explore the unsolved mysteries such as coronal heating mechanism.

(2) Changes of the Earth's ionosphere during the total solar eclipse.

(3) Changes of the Earth's magnetic field and gravity during the total solar eclipse.

Learning point

Tracking motor

Right ascension tracking motor can drive the right ascension axis to rotate reversely at the same angular velocity as the earth's rotation, tracking the stars and keeping the stars in sight for a long time. In addition, we can use faster speed to find the stars to be observed and complete the astrophotography task through flexible acceleration and deceleration. The function of declination tracking motor is to adjust and correct the observed stars when they deviate from the center of the field of view, and to find stars and take pictures of celestial bodies.