Well, today is a special day that only happens twice a year – the equinox.
And normally when the Earth moves around the sun it actually spins at a tilt
and so that means that most of the year the northern and southern hemispheres are not equally illuminated by the sun’s light.
But on these special days – the spring and fall equinox –
both north and south are equally illuminated and give us the astronomical beginnings of spring.
Well August 21 is a really exciting day because we’re going to have a total solar eclipse.
Now all of North America is going to experience at least a partial eclipse –
the moon moving across the sun, blocking out the disk.
Um – but then the special path from Oregon all the way to South Carolina, crossing the entire continent.
In there you get to experience a total solar eclipse where the bright sun’s disk is blocked out completely by the moon,
allowing us to see this amazing outer part of the atmosphere called the solar corona.
Well it’s not – they’re not that rare, but what they are is rare occurring where people are.
And so this one is especially exciting because the path of totality, where the moon is going to completely block out the sun,
is starting in Oregon and traveling all across the United States.
The last time that happened was 1918 and
everyone in North America is going to get to experience at least a partial eclipse and
if you can see the total eclipse then you get to experience the very amazing outer atmosphere
of the sun called the corona, which we normally have to look at from space.
So, as long as you use the proper safety glasses – uh
you’ll get to experience this amazing event and people can watch it online
and see the totality from all across the U.S.
Well we are always looking at the sun from space and we create an artificial eclipse,
blocking out the bright disk allowing us to see the faint corona in visible light.
But, nature does it so much better. And so, seeing it from the ground, especially for such a long period of time,
is a wonderful experience and an opportunity for us to look at this part of the atmosphere
of the sun that creates all of this amazing activity that we call space weather.
And, in fact, this is leading up to 2018 when we’re launching spacecraft to go to the sun itself.
We’re going to travel through that part of the atmosphere
and touch a star for the first time in human history.
Absolutely, the best place to start is eclipse2017.nasa.gov
where you can find out all about the eclipse, safety as well as how you can watch it in person and online.