Keeping one’s head high – has a different connotation…….. from time
immemorial, man has been attracted by the clear sky, the numerable objects that
can be observed have all enamoured people. Each region or religion have
interesting stories of sky – some fascinating ones as we heard in our childhood
days of the moon.
Read somewhere that today is solar
prominence day (what ?) there was also something else ‘Gretna green’ - Have
heard of these. In one way, Gretna green would compare with our own Thiruneermalai (not for the Divyadesam of Lord Ranganatha
known as Neervannan).
Astronomy is the oldest of the
natural sciences, dating back to antiquity. In ancient times people related the
regular patterns of the motions of celestial objects to prediction of future
and recorded the then events in relations to such celestial objects and their
movement. It is a wonder that in those days, they were clearly able to
differentiate between stars and planets. Most olden cultures including our own
have had methodical observations of the night sky and the patterns that were
observed. Religious almanacs were prepared in accordance with these studies.
The Solar system revolves the main
star – the SUN around which the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter,
Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto circulate. Besides, there are innumerable
other things called comets, asteroids and meteoroids. The Sun provides light
and heat and is the reason for life in the system. Our nearest neighbour is a red dwarf
star – proxima centauri – at a distance of 4.3 lightyears away; besides our
home galaxy there are many other, nearest being Andromeda – the galactic space
thus is a horizon which continues to be explored. The star at the centre of solar
system has a dia of about 1392,000kms about 110 times that of our earth. The
Sun consists of hydrogen in huge quantity besides helium and heavier elements
including iron, oxygen, carbon, neon and others.
Solar prominence are sheets of
luminous gas emanating from the sun’s surface – they would appear dark against
the sun’s disk but bright against the dark sky and occur in regions of
horizontal magnetic fields. Here is a NASA photo of a solar prominence.
The largest solar prominence ever
observed reaching a height of 300000 miles from the surface of moon was
observed on 4th June 1946 and hence the day – today. Solar prominences are
large, glowing clouds of gas suspended in magnetic field loops above the Sun's
photosphere. They could not be spotted in white light. They have been observed
during eclipses.
To read more of Solar Prominence : SP
The scientific explanation (as
gathered from Wikipedia and science.jrank.org) is Prominences arise as products
of the solar activity cycle. The hot gas that comprises the Sun is magnetized,
and as the Sun rotates and the heat of its interior churns its subsurface layer
in great convective bubbles, the magnetic field becomes increasingly tangled.
Large magnetic loops burst through the Sun's photosphere and into its
atmosphere. At the focal points of these loops one often finds sunspots, while
trapped in the upper part of the loop is hot (about 10,000 K), glowing hydrogen
gas. These glowing loops are prominences, and not surprisingly, they are most
common at the height of the solar activity cycle, and decrease in number as the
complex magnetic field rearranges itself into simpler configurations and the
activity cycle declines. Because the magnetic loops are not static, prominences
evolve on time scales of days. As a magnetic loop expands, the pressure of the
material inside it may become sufficient to break through the field, and the
prominence will then dissipate. The gas inside a prominence flows from one part
of the loop to the other as well, making prominences dynamic objects for study
from Earth-based and satellite telescopes.
Prominences are typically huge;
several Earth-sized could fit inside a typical prominence loop. Graceful
quiescent prominences last for up to several days, while their more violent
cousins, the eruptive prominences, only last for a matter of hours. Prominences
do not appear to be confined to the Sun; evidence exists for gigantic,
prominence-like structures on other stars. Some stellar prominences have been
suggested to extend as far as an entire stellar radius from the surface of
their parent star. Such a structure would dwarf even the largest solar
prominences.
Coming to Gretna Green – is touted
as a place where many eloping couples get married. This is a village in the
south of Scotland near the mouth of river Esk.
In the yores of England, person could not marry without parental consent
until age of 21, following Act of Parliament – Lord Hardwicke’s Marriage Act.
The Scots were more lenient allowing marriages without such permission at 16.
that made young couples elope to Gretna green, a small village on Eng –
Scottish border for marriage, where the wedding was performed by blacksmith at
roadside toll houses. These marriages were legal.
Thiruneermalai the abode of Lord Ranganatha on a small hill
lies in the outskirts of Chennai, off Pallavaram. Here Lord is in reclining,
standing and sitting postures. This has been an attractive location for many
movies and typically loving couples (a rich girl and a rustic boy) elope to
this temple to get married before the chasing group can near them.
Regards – Sampathkumar.
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