When the solar eclipse occurred this Monday, social media, YouTube and the internet were rife with myths surrounding this celestial event. In fact, these myths are so common that even NASA has gone to the trouble of dispelling them. Some myths are more bizarre and stranger than others whereas there are some, one especially, that is risky if it is believed.

One of the more risky myths about the solar eclipse is that, because the sun is covered by the moon, with only the sun’s corona showing, it is safe enough to look at it directly with the naked eye. Now this is true and not true at the same time, depending upon at which point of the alignment you look up. Because no one can control how people look up, experts have issued general guidelines for observers that cover all types of viewers.

Wear eye protection at all times if you’re going to try looking directly at it. It’s important to note that the eclipse is still dangerous to the eyes if you look at it before totality because there’s a risk you could catch the centre which is the dangerous part and can cause retinal damage. Another myth that was quite common in the ‘old days’ was that an eclipse can cause disruption to our power supplies.

After Monday’s eclipse, I’m sure that everyone knows this is not the case because we were able to watch a live feed of the eclipse via the internet. Therefore, the power supply was running fine. But that being said, maybe the myth came about because, in the days before today’s modern power grids, electric lines were vulnerable.

A lot of the myths surrounding the eclipse are illogical. One that is especially so is the notion that it can make our produce poisonous through radiation penetrating it. How can that be? If you think about it, if radiation damage to food can be caused by the sun’s corona then surely it can be caused by the sun’s corona even when there’s no eclipse? The sun itself emits radiation every single day that it’s in the sky. Moreover, the sun has always had a corona; we just happen to be able to see it during an eclipse.

The point is that the sun has always emitted radiation and our food is proven to be unaffected. The only time produce is dangerous to consume because of radiation damage is when a nuclear reactor on earth accidentally explodes. Then the food is not to be consumed for decades. But where solar eclipses are concerned, definitely no risk at all.

Another myth is that seeds that are planted during a solar eclipse produce plants that are brighter in colour. Again, logic and biology tells us that the quality of the produce we consume depends on the changes in temperature, sunlight and the condition of the soil in which they are grown. The quality of the produce will be affected if any one of these conditions are not optimal.

Now another myth that even I believed at one point, is that the sun is a great big ball of fire in the sky. We think that the sun is on fire with flames being emitted that are millions of light-years in height. The sun is not on fire. It’s hot but not because it’s on fire. Right bang in the centre of the sun is taking place a physical reaction called ‘thermonuclear fusion’. Here Hydrogen atoms are colliding with each other at such high speeds that they fuse to form Helium atoms that then emit Gamma radiation energy. All those explosions we see on the surface of the sun are as a result of this physical reaction. In some cultures, myths are based purely on emotions, probably passed down through generations. Some cultures believe that eclipses are a sign that someone is going to be very ill, or that something bad is about to happen. Another that’s circling YouTube at the moment is that it’s now signalling the end of the world. Where the latter comes from is beyond me because eclipses happen all the time and we’re here even after the eclipse that happened in 2021.