[slate]
Yeah we are so excited for this total solar eclipse. It's going to
be where the sun and the moon and the Earth are just perfectly aligned.
The moon is in between the sun and the Earth blocking out the sun's light
casting its shadow down on the United States. And that's super cool.
The path of totality, the path where this moon blocks the sun's light
the main body of the sun, comes in through Oregon, goes
across the United States and exists out of South Carolina.
And so it crosses 14 states and even if you're not in the path of totality
you will get to see a partial eclipse which means that you'll see the moon
take a bite out of the sun basically and it will get darker where you are.
[slate]
Scientists are super excited about the total solar eclipse. When the moon
blocks the sun's light, we get to see the solar corona around the
moon. So the solar corona is the sun's atmosphere.
And it's not very bright so we usually can't see it. During a total solar eclipse
we can. And this is where all sorts of dynamics, magnetic explosions
occur. The corona is incredibly hot and we don't understand why
that is. That's what I study. So we want to understand all of these
dynamics that are going on on the sun because the sun of course affects us here, Earth.
It affects all of the planets in the solar system.
[slate]
So NASA studies the sun in a lot of different ways. We study it
with our satellites where we look at the sun in different wavelengths.
Ultraviolet light, light that you can't see with your eye. And we
watch these solar storms that happen. These solar storms that these magnetic
explosions on the sun they can hit the Earth, they can hit the other planets.
In fact even on just a normal day on the sun there are little magnetic explosions
and the corona streams off of the sun
filling the solar system, interacting with the planets. It can interact with
the atmospheres of planets. It can interact with
even stripping off some of the atmosphere like the ancient Martian atmosphere.
[slate]
[slate] Parker Solar Probe
will be going to the corona. It will be launched in 2018
and we are so excited about this mission. The Parker Solar Probe
is going to touch the corona in contrast to our regular
our other missions where we get to look at the corona. And in a total solar eclipse
we get to look at the corona in images and we can learn a lot from that.
But to actually get to stick the thermometer in the corona, that's going to be
super cool. And we've never been this close to the sun, so we are very excited.
[slate]
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
picks out the very specific topography of the moon,
the peaks and valleys on the moon to within a centimeter.
The shape of the moon, because the moon isn't a perfect sphere, tells us how
the shadow of the moon is going to land on the Earth.
Because it doesn't make a perfect circle, there are jagged edges because of these peaks and valleys.
[slate]
So the details
of exactly of what you're going to see in your city can be found at eclipse2017.nasa.gov.
But in general if you're in the path of totality
you will see the moon totally block
the main body of the sun and you'll see this solar corona, the solar atmosphere around it
If you're in a partial eclipse which is all of North America,
central America and even parts of South America, then what you'll see is
the moon pass in front of the sun, but not block all of its light. And so with
a pinhole projector you can watch the moon go across the sun
and take a bite out of the sun's light. And
it's just going to be super cool wherever you are.
[slate]
Yes we never want to look
directly at the sun with the naked eye. That can do extreme damage.
to your eye. There are special safety glasses, safety solar glasses.
So not sunglasses. These special safety glasses you can
watch the eclipse with. You can look directly at the sun during the eclipse or
you can use an indirect method like a pinhole camera projector
You put the sun behind you, the sun comes through your pinhole or you can even go
like this with your hands to make a little pinhole. The projected image
will go down on the ground on a piece of people below you
and you can watch safely then the moon come across the
sun and that's the safe way to watch it if you're in a partial eclipse or even if you're in a
total solar eclipse before and after totality.