Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Solar Eclipse Recap: What You Missed”.
For a few minutes on April 8, 2024, the moon blocked the face of the sun and a small part of the earth went dark. Millions of people across North and Central America got to witness a total solar eclipse when the moon passes between the Earth and the Sun. A total solar eclipse is a cosmic event where the moon and the sun appear to be the same size in the sky. The sun is about 400 times bigger than the moon, but because the Moon is 400 times closer to US. During this event, from our perspective, the Sun and the Moon look the same size.
The eclipse started at the Southern Pacific Ocean on Mexico’s Pacific coast and exited over Canada with 13 US states in the path of totality a track over 100 Mi wide, where the moon completely blocked the face of the Sun for anywhere between 2 and 4 minutes. Depending on where you were along that path, the sky went dark and if the weather was in your favor, this is where you might have seen the corona, the outer atmosphere of the sun, which is much dimmer than the Sun’s face during totality in mazatan Mexico. You could see pink filaments around the Eclipse which could have been the start of space weather crowds gathered across the path of totality and across Central and North America, wearing eclipse, glasses or watching indirectly, through pinhole projectors. Compared to the last total solar eclipse that passed over the United States in 2017, this year was particularly special.
It lasted longer and covered more land, so more people were able to witness it firsthand, and the sun itself is actually more active. This time around, the sun’s magnetic field goes through. What’S called a solar cycle about every 11 years when it completely flips in 2017, the sun was closer to solar minimum, a time of decreasing solar activity which meant fewer solar, flares and coronal mass ejections in 2024. We are much closer to solar maximum.
So there’s a lot more activity NASA even likened the sun’s magnetic field to a tangled hairball and in some locations like Dallas Texas, you could have seen the asymmetrical nature of the corona, an indicator that we’re reaching solar maximum. Well, millions of people put on their eclipse, glasses or watch the live stream to see this Celestial event, scientists were very busy NASA sent two high altitude research planes, 50,000 ft above the Earth’s surface, to chase the eclipse. These Jets Can Fly Above the Clouds, so the weather doesn’t matter and they can spend more time in the moon’s Shadow because they’re flying at 460 mph scientists are hoping to uncover new details in the Corona and to learn more about its chemical composition and temperature. Another study is about the ionosphere or the charged layer of the Earth’s upper atmosphere on the ground. Radars in the path of the eclipse were used to analyze the ionosphere and NASA even launched sounding Rockets to study how the sudden drop in sunlight affects the upper atmosphere. Even astronauts and the International Space Station got a bird’s eye view of the eclipse as it happened and, yes, they were wearing the proper eye equipment too for everyone else on the ground.
If you missed it, the next one won’t be visible from the United States until 204 4, but the next total solar eclipse will actually take place on August 26th 2026 and be visible in Greenland, Iceland, Spain, Russia and some parts of Portugal. So there is plenty of time to book those plane tickets for more on the eclipse. You can check out our full coverage on cnet.com .