video | A star disappears from the UAE sky for 8 seconds before reappearing, and experts reveal the reason

Weather of Arabia - The Seal Astronomical Observatory of the International Astronomy Center was able, at dawn today, Saturday, December 24, 2022 AD, to monitor and photograph a rare astronomical phenomenon that was seen from regions in the UAE, which is the disappearance of a star for 8 seconds; Because of the passage of an asteroid named "Thuli" (279 Thule) in front of a Taurus star called (HIP 20917); Where this phenomenon can only be monitored from certain areas located within a narrow strip not exceeding 130 kilometers wide that crossed the southern half of the UAE and some neighboring countries, including parts of the Sultanate of Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, northern Saudi Arabia, southern Jordan and southern Palestine. It happened that this narrow strip passed over the Astronomical Seal Observatory in the Seal area in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

Engineer Muhammad Shawkat Odeh, Director of the International Astronomy Center, explained in a statement to “Previously” that the diameter of the asteroid “Thuli” is only 126 km, and it was located at the time of the occultation at a distance of 474 million km from Earth. While the star is 37 light years away from us.

And Odeh added: Prior astronomical calculations for the observatory's website showed that the asteroid will cross in front of the star and occultation will begin on Saturday, December 24 at 3 a.m. UAE time, and the occultation will last for only 8 seconds, and during this period the star will disappear from view due to the passing of the faint asteroid. in front of him.

And he continued: In preparation for the occultation, the main telescope of the Astronomical Seal Observatory, which has a diameter of 14 inches, was directed towards the star at three o’clock in the morning, and as soon as the telescope was directed towards it, it was clearly seen through the devices, and the star remained visible until it disappeared at 3 o’clock in the morning, 27 minutes and 59.953 seconds. And the occultation lasted for 8 seconds, until it reappeared at 3 am 28 minutes 08.460 seconds.

The astronomer "Odeh" confirmed that this observation is considered a difficult astronomical observation for several reasons. Including the relative dimness of the luminosity of the star and the asteroid, as the star shines from magnitude 7.7, and the asteroid shines from magnitude 14.6, and these values require a sensitive camera to be able to photograph the star during an exposure period of only 0.03 seconds. Also, the occultation occurred while the star is located at a low altitude in the sky of only 25 degrees. which makes it outwardly lighter and increases the turbulence of the atmosphere on it; Indicating that the occultation occurred after the passage of a mass of clouds that covered the area for several hours before the occultation, and the sky remained clear for a short period at the time of the occultation, so that less than an hour after the occultation a large cloud cover entered.

He pointed out that the occultations of stars by asteroids are usually immediate; Because the stars are point sources that have no diameter to be mentioned as seen from the earth; However, in a few cases, the occultation does not occur immediately and the star gradually disappears, and this is what happened in this occultation, as the star needed about one second to completely disappear, which indicates that this star has a significant apparent diameter.

The Director of the International Astronomy Center stated that astronomical occultations are among the astronomical phenomena that provide valuable information to scientists. Through it, many discoveries were made, including the discovery of the rings of Uranus and Neptune, the determination of the apparent diameters of some stars, the determination of the shape of the edges of the moon, the determination of the shape and sizes of some asteroids, and the identification and revision of the orbits of the planets and asteroids of the solar system. discovering moons of some asteroids; Therefore, the International Astronomy Center attaches great importance to such phenomena, and provides the result of its observations to the international bodies concerned with these observations, including the Astronomical Conjunctions Timing Organization in the United States.