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Millions of people in the US will be able to see a total solar eclipse on April 8.
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There are several highly populated cities in the United States in the path of the eclipse, so people can easily watch it.
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NASA is hoping that citizen scientists will help them collect a lot of data during the eclipse.
Millions of people will be able to protective glasses and view a spectacular total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, beginning at approximately 1 pm CT.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because a 70-mile band across the US saw a total solar eclipse in 2017, while many other areas saw a partial eclipse. People drove across states and gathered near planetariums just to see those long minutes when the sky went dark in the middle of the day.
But the upcoming total eclipse in April will be even cooler, excited NASA scientists told reporters at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union.
“Those of us who have seen an eclipse know you want to see your next one,” said Kelly Korreck, NASA’s program manager for the 2024 solar eclipse, during his round table at the meeting.
She added that many people are probably excited for this year’s anniversary when they have had one recently.
even though total solar eclipses Not uncommonly, there are a few circumstances surrounding this upcoming event that make it unique, from its path across the US to the abundance of solar activity to the plethora of science projects planned by NASA and others in the last few minutes. The moon will seem to cover the sun.
Over 30 million people will be able to see the total solar eclipse
There are three types of solar eclipses:
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An annular eclipse appears as a bright ring around the moon
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a partial eclipse but partially blocks the sun
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in a total eclipse, the moon appears to completely cover the sun
In 2017, the continental US had its own the first total eclipse from coast to coast since 1918. The path included parts of 14 states, but not populated cities like Atlanta and Charlotte, North Carolina.
This year, more people will be able to see the eclipse without having to travel.
The path extends from Mexico to northeastern Canada.
“This is the most populated eclipse in the United States, and 31.5 million people will be able to walk outside their homes and experience this event,” said Korreck.
Dallas, Cleveland, and Indianapolis are positioned for excellent total eclipse viewing.
The eclipse will last a little longer than the last one
Depending on your location, you will have about 3 to 4 minutes to watch the moon eclipse the sun.
That peak of the eclipse, called totality, will last a little longer than it did in 2017, Korreck said.
US residents who miss this year’s eclipse will have to wait another few decades for a similar event. The next total solar eclipses will be visible in the contiguous United States in 2044 and 2045, but neither will cut through Cleveland or Indianapolis.
“You’re not going to get another eclipse for a while,” Korreck said.
An active sun should make for incredible viewing
In 2017, the sun was relatively quiet during the eclipse. As he approaches his solar maximumhe is spitting out solar flares.
Korreck hopes that coronary mass ejection during the eclipse. CMEs are high-speed blobs of plasma that erupt from the sun’s corona, or outer layer.
“You could see that kind of inky mass just leaving the sun at that point in time,” Korreck said. “So it would be pretty amazing.”
If that happens, Korreck said an increase should be made aurora borealis activity a couple of days after that. Even if there is no CME, the images may be more dynamic than they were in 2017, with more vortex-like prominences leading from the sun.
“It should be a very complex sun,” said Korreck.
Balloons, rockets, and citizen scientists will be tracking the eclipse
Solar eclipses are a big deal in the scientific community. “They allow you to do experiments that you can’t do otherwise,” said Nour E. Raouafi, an astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University, during the roundtable.
Eclipse in 1919 created Game Albert Einstein the theory of relativityhe said.
This is probably the largest observed total solar eclipse in history.
That’s because NASA and other institutions will be using radar, balloons, spacecraft, and jets to experiment and collect data during the eclipse. NASA is interested in tracking changes in density, wind speed, and temperature at the ionosphere — part of Earth’s upper atmosphere — during the event.
Unlike the 2017 eclipse, there are now two solar-powered spacecraft orbiting our star. This is an opportunity that NASA has never had before – to monitor the sun closely, from two different space observatories, while instruments here on Earth study the eclipse.
That should give scientists more comprehensive eclipse data than ever before.
There are tons of it citizen scientist projects underway, too. NASA expects people to use their Ham radios, telescopes, cameras and phones to record images, sounds and observations during the eclipse.
Read the original article on Business Insider