Summary:
The phenomenon occurs twice a year when the sun is at its highest point in the sky at all the regions between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.
Due to the sun being exactly overhead, the shadow of all beings or objects disappears, resulting in Zero Shadow Day.
In Odisha, different districts can experience the Zero Shadow Days starting from May 21 to June 2.
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Odisha’s Bhubaneswar witnessed Zero Shadow Day on Friday.
It is a rare celestial phenomenon during which no shadow of an object or a being is observed.
The phenomenon occurs twice a year when the sun is at its highest point in the sky at all the regions between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.
Due to the sun being exactly overhead, the shadow of all beings or objects disappears, resulting in Zero Shadow Day.
Bhubaneswar witnessed this rare event at 11:43am and it continued for a brief period of about three minutes.
Subhendu Patnaik, Deputy Director of Pathani Samanta Planetarium in Bhubaneswar, explained this phenomenon and said the event takes place when the rotation axis of the Earth is tilted at an angle of 23.5° to the axis of revolution around the sun.
During the sun’s apparent North to South and South to North movement, there are two days in a calendar year when the sun’s declination and the latitude of a place within the tropics align briefly, making shadows disappear for a short while.
Subhendu Patnaik said “We experienced it today.
Can be experienced in Cuttack tomorrow (Sunday).” In Odisha, different districts can experience the Zero Shadow Days starting from May 21 to June 2.
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