Zodiacal Light in May Astronomy

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HMM … !!

very much doubt if the ZL could be seen at any part of a total solar eclipse. My experience of even GOOD eclipses in clear skies was that you could see planets, and 1st magnitude stars at a pinch, and not much more !

The origin of the Zodiacal Dust is mainly as he says though, as far as we know – cometary debris and results of collisions in asteroid families … plus a small component of interstellar dust drifting through … which I thought I had discovered in 1971 !

Debris from the days of formation of the planets would long since have spiralled into the Sun because of the Poynting-Robertson effect … which is the result of solar radiation slowing down the particles by a tiny amount due to their orbital speed … a bit like the effect of rain slowing us down when we run (does it ??! )

Cheers

Bri

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