Bhubaneswar: The Capital city will witness ‘Zero Shadow Day’ (ZSD), a rare celestial phenomenon during which no shadow of an object or a being is observed, Tuesday. Elaborate arrangements have been made at the Pathani Samanta Planetarium for the event at 11:43 am. “This 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. This leads to the sun’s rays falling perpendicular to the Earth’s surface.
With sun exactly overhead, no being or object cast a shadow, resulting in Zero Shadow Day,” informed Subhendu Pattnaik, former deputy director, Pathanisamanta Planetarium here Sunday. According to Pattnaik, 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. “As the Tropic of Capricorn passes well below the Indian land mass the event can only be observed between Kanykumari to Tropic of Cancer which passes through Central India little above Odisha,” he said. “The event is observable in all parts of the state, but on different dates and times.
For Bhubaneswar, ZSDs will take place May 21 at 11:43 am and July 22 at 11:53 am,”Pattnaik informed. He said, “One can observe the event by putting up symmetrical objects like bucket, pole, cardboard box, bottle, vertically on a plane surface outside under the direct sun.”
