A total solar eclipse takes place on April 8 across North America. These events occur when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, completely blocking the Sun’s face. This plunges observers into a darkness similar to dawn or dusk.
During the upcoming eclipse, the path of totality, where observers experience the darkest part of the Moon’s shadow (the umbra), crosses Mexico, arcing northeast through Texas, the Midwest, and briefly entering Canada before ending in Maine.
Total solar eclipses occur roughly every 18 months at some location on Earth. The last total solar eclipse that crossed the US took place on August 21, 2017.
An international team of scientists, led by Aberystwyth University, will be conducting experiments from near Dallas at a location in the path of totality. The team consists of PhD students and researchers from Aberystwyth University, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, and Caltech (California Institute of Technology) in Pasadena.
There is valuable science to be done during eclipses that are comparable to or better than what we can achieve via space-based missions. Our experiments may also shed light on a longstanding puzzle about the outermost part of the Sun’s atmosphere – its corona.
Read the full story at Study Finds.
