Astronomy lovers are preparing for the sky to host an exciting astronomical event on Friday, May 5, when the moon will enter the semi-shadow region of the Earth, creating an event known as a "semi-shadow eclipse."
During a penumbral eclipse, also known as a "false eclipse," skywatchers will see a slight darkening of the moon's surface. A semi-shadow eclipse occurs when the moon enters an area close to the earth's shadow called the "semi-shadow". The earth's shadow does not fall on the moon, nor does a real eclipse occur to it, but its illumination has dimmed by about 10%.
The lunar eclipse will begin at 15:15 GMT, and it will be visible in several regions of the world where the moon is on the horizon, including Antarctica, Asia, Russia, Oceania, and eastern and central Africa.
The event will peak at 17:24 GMT and end at 19:32 GMT, when the Moon emerges from Earth's shadow.
The penumbra is the area where part of the sun's light is blocked from the moon, and this means that when the moon is inside the darkness, it receives less light from the sun and is dimmer but remains somewhat luminous.
According to In the Sky, the penumbral eclipse will not be visible at all from North America, South America or most of Europe.
And like every lunar eclipse, a penumbral eclipse occurs as a result of the earth passing between the moon and the sun and the three bodies being in a straight line.
This results in our planet's shadow falling on the face of the Moon as the Earth blocks light from the Sun. This can lead to events that can be subtle and difficult to observe, unlike solar eclipses.
The last time a penumbral eclipse was seen from the United States was on November 30, 2020, and the next time such an event will be visible from this region of the world on March 25, 2024.
Remnants of the Universe's First Stars Discovered
These stars were formed shortly after the Big Bang and were completely different from the stars that exist today.
Astronomers claim to have discovered evidence of the universe's first exploding stars.
This discovery will allow researchers to better understand the events that took place during the formation of the first stars after the Big Bang.
Scientist Andrea Ciccardi, who led the research, said: 'For the first time we have been able to identify the chemical signatures of the first stellar explosions in gas clouds far from Earth.'
Scientists believe that when the first stars formed 13.5 billion years ago, they were very different from the stars that surround us now. They were simpler, made of hydrogen and helium, and probably hundreds of times more massive than our Sun.'
Soon after these stars were born, they were thought to have been destroyed in massive explosions called supernovae. This ejected heavier elements into the surrounding gas, leading to the formation of new stars and the release of heavier elements.
These processes were key to the creation of the universe that surrounds us today, but scientists struggle to learn about them because they are dead.
But researchers are able to better understand them by looking for the chemical elements that were left behind when these first stars died.
Now, using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, researchers have done just that.
Astronomers observed three distant gas clouds that existed when the universe was just 10 or 15 percent of its current age.
Scientists believe that they are the remnants of the ancient stars they left behind and are the basis of their chemical fingerprint.
The results of this study called 'Evidence of first stars-enriched gas in high-redshift absorbers' have been published in the scientific journal Astrophysical Journal.
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