Heena Sharma Blog

The first solar eclipse or Surya Grahan of 2020 will fall on June 21. This will be an annular solar eclipse where moon will cover the sun from the centre leaving the outer rim visible, thus creating a ring of fire. The annular solar eclipse of June 2020 will start at 9:15 am on June 21 according to Indian Standard Timing (IST). The full eclipse will start from 10:17 am with the maximum eclipse occurring at 12:10 pm. Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), Nainital, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science & Technology (DST) will live telecast the eclipse. “Astronomical events such as eclipse are exceptional opportunities to excite and instruct the youth and indeed the society at large about science and to instill scientific temper,” said Professor Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, DST. Read More

Our senses are stuck in the past . There’s a flash of lightning, and then seconds pass until we hear the rumble of distant thunder. We hear the past. We are seeing into the past too . While sound travels about a kilometre every three seconds, light travels 300,000 kilometres every second. When we see a flash of lighting three kilometres away, we are seeing something that happened a hundredth of a millisecond ago. That’s not exactly the distant past. But as we look further afield, we can peer further back. We can see seconds, minutes, hours and years into the past with our own eyes. Looking through a telescope, we can look even further into the past. A second back in time If you really want to look back in time, you need to look up. The Moon is our nearest celestial neighbour - a world with valleys, mountains and craters. Read More Business Standard