Yeah.
So a total solar eclipse happens
when the moon passes between us here on the earth and the sun.
And for those people who are in the path of totality,
it will block out the moon will block out the main body of the sun,
and you'll get to see the corona or the atmosphere
of the sun peeking out around the moon.
Now, everybody in the contiguous United States will get to see
at least a partial solar eclipse, which means that the moon will block out
part of the sun, but not all of it.
That's right.
Never look directly at the sun,
but there are three safe ways to view the solar eclipse.
The first is with special solar viewers.
These glasses have special filters in front of them so that it is
safe to view the sun always, but during the partial phases of the eclipse as well.
If you're in the path of totality, then during that total phase
of the eclipse, when the moon totally blocks out the main body of the sun,
then it's safe to look directly at the corona,
which is the part of the sun that peeks out during totality.
The third way is to make a pinhole projector.
You can make them. You can also
get one of the
ones that we're using for our punch outreach.
They're just simple holes.
You stand with the sun behind you.
You project the image then of the moon coming between us
and the sun down onto the ground in front of you,
through the holes.
I am so excited
to get to see the solar corona, the atmosphere of the sun.
That's the part of the sun that peeks out around the moon
during the total the totality phase of solar eclipse.
That's the part of the sun that I study all the time,
and I'm so excited to actually get to see it with my own eyes.
This one is different than the one in 2017 for a few reasons.
I got to see the one in 2017, so it was so amazing.
The first is that
the path of totality is coming over where more people live, and so more
people will have the opportunity to see the total phase of the eclipse.
The second thing is that the totality phase is going to last longer
this time than in 2017, almost twice as long.
This one will last for 4 minutes in the central line of totality there.
And the third thing is the sun is more active right now.
So in 2017, there was some activity, The corona had some structure.
But in this phase, the sun is more active.
So that corona, the atmosphere of the sun,
is going to have more complexity and we might even get to see
a magnetic explosion happening on the sun during the eclipse.
Yeah, there's a lot of ways
that anybody can get involved in the science of the eclipse.
One is called Globe Observer, where you can use your cell phone
to measure the cloud coverage
and how the temperature feels during the eclipse.
Because the moon is blocking the sunlight and so the temperature
actually decreases.
There's also a project called Sun Sketcher where you can use your phone
to actually look at the shape of the sun during the eclipse.
The third one is called Soundscape.
So that's one where you can actually record the sounds of the animals
during the eclipse, because the animals are going
to think that it's nighttime, it feels like nighttime and it's dark
like nighttime, and the animals respond to that.
Yeah.
So during the eclipse, the moon is blocking out the sunlight.
And so it feels like dawn or dusk to the animals.
And so they will start to respond like it's nighttime.
You'll hear different sounds
and it's with soundscapes, you can actually record that
and actually help the scientists take data on that.
So during a total solar eclipse, when we can see the solar corona,
the outer atmosphere of the sun, scientists are looking at that corona.
There are a lot of mysteries about how the energy gets into the corona
and how that energy gets from the corona out into the solar system.
The other thing we're looking at is how that energy from the sun impacts
Earth's atmosphere.
And so we're flying experiments sounding rockets to look at how
Earth's atmosphere responds to that decrease in sunlight.
Yeah, women have been
a part of solar studies for a long time.
Two fun examples are Maria mitchell
and Cecilia Payne, who are part of their 1869
total solar eclipse campaigns that came here in the United States.
But here at NASA, we're just so lucky that women
get to be a part of and lead so many solar missions.
Mission development, science studies all throughout Heliophysics.
Yeah.
So during the eclipse, these students are going
to launch balloons with instruments to measure
how the atmosphere responds during the total solar eclipse.
Because during the eclipse, the moon blocks out the main body of the sun.
And so the light coming to the earth and how the atmosphere responds
will be really interesting to study.
And those students are going to be a part of that science.
Yeah,
so you can learn more by going to go dot nasa.gov slash Eclipse 2024. [ go.nasa.gov/eclipse2024 ]