The Ring of Fire: 2023 Annular Solar Eclipse (Official NASA Broadcast)

NASA

Watch live with us as a “ring of fire” eclipse travels across the United States on Oct. 14, 2023, from Oregon to Texas.   This event occurs when the Moon passes directly in front of the Sun, but appears too small to completely cover the Sun’s surface – resulting in what appears as a ring of fire in the sky. It’s also known as an annular solar eclipse. Everyone in the contiguous 48 states will have the opportunity to see at least a partial eclipse. Join us for conversations with scientists and telescope views from across the country — and send us your questions in chat using #askNASA.   Warning: During an annular eclipse, it is never safe to look directly at the Sun without specialized eye protection designed for solar viewing.   Review our eclipse safety guidelines: https://go.nasa.gov/EclipseSafety  Learn about the annular eclipse: https://go.nasa.gov/Eclipse2023  Track the eclipse’s path: https://go.nasa.gov/EclipseExplorer    Credit: NASA

Transcript

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00:00:50 - Welcome to NASA's coverage

00:00:57 of the 2023 annular solar eclipse.

00:01:00 Live from Kerrville, Texas.

00:01:02 I'm Tahira Allen with NASA Communications,

00:01:04 and I'm joined today by Dr. Gina DiBraccio,

00:01:07 the Deputy Director of our Goddard Space Flight Center's

00:01:10 Heliophysics Science Division.

00:01:12 Gina, thank you so much for being here with us today.

00:01:15 - Thanks for having me, Tahira.

00:01:16 Happy to be here.

00:01:17 - I mean, it's a big day for heliophysics.

00:01:20 - It is. - Which is the study

00:01:21 of the sun and its effects across the solar system.

00:01:24 So Gina, I'm dying to know, how are you feeling right now?

00:01:27 - I am thrilled.

00:01:28 We've been planning this day for such a long time,

00:01:31 and I can't believe it's finally here.

00:01:33 It's so exciting.

00:01:33 - And I mean, you couldn't have asked for a better date.

00:01:35 Folks, it's blue skies, we've got the sun beaming.

00:01:38 It's incredible. - It's great.

00:01:40 - And so today's celestial event will be visible

00:01:43 for millions in the Western Hemisphere,

00:01:45 with 48 contiguous US states and parts of Alaska

00:01:49 witnessing at least a partial eclipse.

00:01:52 Now, some cities, like Kerrville, Texas,

00:01:54 are in what's called the path of annularity

00:01:57 for today's events.

00:01:58 So Gina, can you break down what that means

00:02:00 and what somebody in this path can expect?

00:02:02 - Sure, Tahira.

00:02:03 So when a solar eclipse happens,

00:02:05 the sun, the moon, and the earth are all in line.

00:02:08 Now, for an annular eclipse,

00:02:10 the moon will be just a little bit further away

00:02:12 from the earth than during a total solar eclipse.

00:02:15 And that means when the moon crosses in front of the sun,

00:02:18 we're left with this ring of fire that we see in the sky.

00:02:21 - That is gonna be incredible to witness in person.

00:02:25 And folks, the eclipse has already begun sweeping

00:02:28 across the United States,

00:02:30 first starting in Oregon at 9.13 a.m. Pacific

00:02:33 and ending in Texas at 12.03 central.

00:02:36 From there, it will continue its path

00:02:38 through Central and South America.

00:02:40 Now, keep an eye on the telescope feed

00:02:42 in the box on your screen.

00:02:44 We're gonna be sharing live views

00:02:46 from across the eclipse path throughout today's show.

00:02:49 Now, Gina, is there a way to know

00:02:51 what kind of viewing experience I can have in my city?

00:02:54 - Sure, so our viewers can go to go.nasa.gov/eclipseexplorer

00:02:59 and that will take you to that interactive map that we have

00:03:03 and you can see when

00:03:04 and what your viewing experience will be.

00:03:07 - That is amazing.

00:03:08 Thank you so much, Gina.

00:03:09 - Absolutely.

00:03:10 - And folks, if you go ahead and look

00:03:11 in that feed in your screen,

00:03:13 this is a live view of Kerrville, Texas,

00:03:15 and you can see the moon is already starting

00:03:17 to intercross the sun right now.

00:03:19 So again, this is a good time to mention

00:03:22 where this eclipse goes today.

00:03:23 We go during today's broadcast.

00:03:25 So if you're not in the path of annularity

00:03:27 and still wanna see that ring of fire effect, don't worry.

00:03:30 Our friends from Time and Date

00:03:32 are bringing us live telescope views

00:03:34 from across the path of the annular eclipse,

00:03:37 starting first in the United States

00:03:39 and then following the action

00:03:40 as it sweeps across Central and South America.

00:03:43 We have a lot of exciting things planned

00:03:46 for you throughout the show.

00:03:47 You're gonna see what it's like inside a hot air balloon

00:03:50 at the world's largest balloon festival.

00:03:53 We'll then check in with astronauts

00:03:55 aboard the International Space Station.

00:03:57 You'll hear from a very special guest about eclipse safety

00:04:01 and then learn all the ways you can participate

00:04:03 in next year's total solar eclipse.

00:04:06 This is gonna be the last time a total solar eclipse passes

00:04:10 across the mainland US for two decades.

00:04:13 Now you can interact with our experts in today's show

00:04:16 by sending in questions using the hashtag #AskNASA

00:04:19 on social media or by dropping them directly

00:04:22 into the comment stream wherever you're watching.

00:04:25 Now, today we are here for an annular solar eclipse,

00:04:29 but did you know there is actually a difference

00:04:31 between an annular and total solar eclipse?

00:04:34 Now imagine the sun is having a spotlight show in the sky.

00:04:38 In a total solar eclipse,

00:04:40 the moon moves right in front of the sun

00:04:42 and covers it up like a big curtain,

00:04:44 making everything dark for a little bit.

00:04:47 It's similar to what you would see at dusk or dawn.

00:04:50 Now, because the moon is completely blocking the light

00:04:53 from the sun, we're able to see the sun's corona

00:04:55 during a total solar eclipse.

00:04:57 Now, in an annular solar eclipse like today,

00:05:00 the moon is gonna be a bit too far away

00:05:03 to completely cover the sun.

00:05:04 So like Gina said, when you look up at the sky,

00:05:07 you're gonna see the sun with a glowing ring

00:05:09 around the moon.

00:05:10 Because of this, it is often called a ring of fire effect.

00:05:14 And as you can see on your screen right now,

00:05:16 it is gonna be a really, really cool and unusual sight.

00:05:20 Now, a word of caution though,

00:05:22 because the sun is never completely covered

00:05:24 during an annular eclipse,

00:05:26 it is important to always wear your eclipse safety glasses

00:05:29 anytime you look at the sun.

00:05:31 Now, both types of eclipses are amazing shows,

00:05:34 just with different perspectives.

00:05:36 So today we're gonna be bringing you views

00:05:38 of the annular eclipse,

00:05:39 and you're gonna have an opportunity

00:05:41 to view a total solar eclipse on April 8th, 2024.

00:05:45 Now, Gina, anything you would add to that?

00:05:48 - Of course, Tahira.

00:05:49 So the science, with the annular eclipse

00:05:51 and the total solar eclipse,

00:05:53 we can do great science,

00:05:54 and NASA has a bunch of experiments

00:05:56 which you'll hear about later today.

00:05:57 - Fantastic, thank you so much, Gina.

00:06:00 And folks, it's time to meet your other hosts.

00:06:03 We have James Traley at our eclipse desk.

00:06:06 He's gonna be keeping us keyed into the action,

00:06:09 connecting with telescope operators across the country

00:06:12 to show us live views as annularity sweeps the nation.

00:06:16 And we also have Joy Ung and Michael Kirk

00:06:19 at our Albuquerque desk.

00:06:20 They're gonna be joined with special guests

00:06:22 throughout the show to talk about how important eclipses are

00:06:26 to all the science we do at NASA,

00:06:28 and how you can play a part in the activities

00:06:30 leading up to 2024's total solar eclipse.

00:06:34 Now, we're gonna head out to Joy and Michael later,

00:06:36 but first, James, how are things looking on your end?

00:06:39 - Hey, Tahira, so excited to be joining you live

00:06:41 from Kerrville, Texas.

00:06:43 I've got my eclipse glasses ready to view today's big event,

00:06:46 the annularity, right here in just a few moments.

00:06:48 We should be getting our first view from the West Coast.

00:06:51 In just a few moments, up in Eugene, Oregon,

00:06:53 we'll have the first awesome view from the United States.

00:06:55 And you can track all of today's events

00:06:57 using this interactive tool we've developed

00:06:59 called our Eclipse Explorer.

00:07:01 If you want to play around with this,

00:07:02 go to go.nasa.gov/eclipseexplorer.

00:07:06 This is a fantastic tool that allows you to preview

00:07:09 exactly what the eclipse is gonna look like

00:07:11 in your neck of the woods.

00:07:12 You can see this path that it's gonna be taking

00:07:14 all the way down to us in Kerrville, Texas,

00:07:16 starting out in the Pacific Northwest.

00:07:18 But even if you're outside of that area of influence,

00:07:21 say, for example, you're watching today's broadcast live

00:07:23 from Milwaukee, you'll get a great view of a partial eclipse

00:07:26 and these little icons that you see here,

00:07:28 these little googly eyes, if you will,

00:07:30 they're actually clickable.

00:07:31 So if I go to Eugene, they're supposed to have

00:07:33 peak annularity beginning at around 9.17 a.m. Pacific.

00:07:36 If I click on this little googly eye,

00:07:38 it'll snap right to that time

00:07:40 and you can preview exactly where it's gonna be.

00:07:42 So you still have plenty of time

00:07:44 to start getting up to speed with exactly

00:07:46 what this annular eclipse or partial eclipse

00:07:49 is gonna look like in your neck of the woods.

00:07:50 So I certainly encourage you to play around with this tool.

00:07:53 And if we go to our real-time view of it now,

00:07:55 you can see that a partial eclipse

00:07:57 is already impacting a very large portion

00:07:59 of the United States, stretching all the way out

00:08:01 to as far as Nashville.

00:08:02 And so very excited for our moment

00:08:04 in this partially eclipsed sun here in Kerrville, Texas.

00:08:07 We're expecting that to begin at around 11.50 a.m. local.

00:08:11 I'm gonna continue to track the movement

00:08:13 of this annular eclipse across the U.S.

00:08:15 But for now, back to you, Tahira.

00:08:17 - Thank you so much, James.

00:08:19 So excited to see that first instant

00:08:22 of the Ring of Fire effect soon.

00:08:24 Now, Gina and I are joined with Leslie Garrison.

00:08:27 - Hi, Leslie.

00:08:28 - Who is gonna show us how to make a pinhole viewer

00:08:30 to observe today's events

00:08:32 if you do not have your eclipse glasses.

00:08:35 So Leslie, I see you've got a few different

00:08:37 pre-built pinhole viewers with you right now.

00:08:39 Can you first just walk us through how this even works?

00:08:42 - Yes, absolutely.

00:08:43 So to safely view the sun today,

00:08:45 we brought a couple of items.

00:08:47 We have a colander, a pinhole, a peg hole,

00:08:51 a sheet of cardstock, and a hole punch.

00:08:54 And so we're going to use them to simply create

00:08:57 what we call a pinhole projector.

00:08:59 And so in order to use these or to make these,

00:09:01 you need a few items from home,

00:09:02 but number one, make sure to never look at the sun directly,

00:09:06 but number two, make sure when you are making

00:09:08 and creating and using these,

00:09:10 that the sun is to your back

00:09:11 so that the sun's light can cast light through the holes.

00:09:15 - And you just, what, put it up and have it--

00:09:18 - Yep.

00:09:19 - Coming through. - Put a shadow on the ground.

00:09:20 - Absolutely, and so on the paper model,

00:09:21 we are going to put a hole here,

00:09:25 and the light is gonna go directly through it.

00:09:27 Peg hole, the colander, and the NASA 3D printed model

00:09:31 already has a hole.

00:09:32 All you have to do is wait for the eclipse to happen

00:09:35 and see the view of the sun on a surface area.

00:09:38 - That's great, so Leslie,

00:09:38 can you go over those materials just one more time?

00:09:41 - Absolutely, so at home,

00:09:42 you probably already have a colander.

00:09:44 This is just a pegboard toy from my son's toy box

00:09:47 and a sheet of card stock and a hole punch,

00:09:51 but NASA has a cool event online.

00:09:53 You can see our URL somewhere on our screen,

00:09:56 and you can go online and make these items at home to use.

00:09:59 - So really, you just need something with a hole.

00:10:01 - You need something with a hole.

00:10:03 - Yeah, the sun's light to shine through,

00:10:05 so on the surface area,

00:10:06 and you can see the eclipse on that surface area.

00:10:08 - Simple, effective.

00:10:09 Leslie, thank you so much for your help today.

00:10:12 And folks, this is a good time to remind everybody

00:10:15 that it is dangerous to look directly at the sun

00:10:18 without specialized eye protection for solar viewing

00:10:21 during today's events.

00:10:23 Now, we have a very special guest that you might recognize

00:10:27 popping in to share some important tips

00:10:29 to make sure that you stay safe during an annular eclipse.

00:10:33 (crowd cheering)

00:10:35 - Hi, eclipse enthusiasts.

00:10:36 Lance Bass here, and I wanna tell you

00:10:38 how to protect those eyes and stay safe

00:10:40 during a solar eclipse.

00:10:42 During these celestial events,

00:10:44 the sun, earth, and moon are in sync,

00:10:46 creating solar eclipses.

00:10:48 During an annular eclipse,

00:10:50 it's not the moment for a sun-staring contest.

00:10:53 Grab those eclipse glasses

00:10:54 and shade your eyes from the ring of fire.

00:10:57 What you'll witness is a true cosmic marvel.

00:11:00 The moon will move between the sun and the earth,

00:11:02 but the moon is a bit too far away from earth

00:11:04 to completely cover the sun.

00:11:06 So, when you look up at the sky during this annular eclipse,

00:11:09 you'll see the sun creating a glowing ring around the moon.

00:11:13 Because the sun is never completely blocked,

00:11:15 it is never, never, never safe to look directly

00:11:18 at an annular eclipse

00:11:19 without special eye protection for solar viewing.

00:11:22 This I promise you.

00:11:23 You should wear eclipse glasses so that you don't say

00:11:26 bye-bye-bye to your vision, seriously.

00:11:29 And eclipse glasses are not the same as regular sunglasses.

00:11:32 No, they're not.

00:11:33 Safe solar viewers are thousands of times darker

00:11:35 and will have a specific certification

00:11:37 that you should look for right here.

00:11:40 Don't be a space cowboy and try to look directly at the sun.

00:11:43 If you don't have eclipse glasses,

00:11:45 you can use an indirect viewing method,

00:11:47 like a pinhole projector.

00:11:48 You can make one of these with something as simple

00:11:50 as an index card with a hole,

00:11:53 or a colander, or even your hands.

00:11:57 With the sun at your back,

00:11:58 you can safely project an image of the sun

00:12:00 through the hole onto a nearby surface, like the ground.

00:12:03 It's gonna be me who is wearing my eclipse glasses,

00:12:07 and so are you.

00:12:08 Now, don't forget to be in sync

00:12:17 with these safety tips, folks.

00:12:19 Seriously, listen to Lance and protect those eyes.

00:12:22 We really want everybody to enjoy today's events.

00:12:26 Now, let's check in with Joy and Michael

00:12:29 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

00:12:31 Joy, Michael, how is the energy over there?

00:12:33 Hi, Tara and Gina.

00:12:37 The energy in Albuquerque is buzzing.

00:12:39 We are so excited for the annual eclipse

00:12:41 to pass through New Mexico in just under an hour.

00:12:45 I'm joined with one of EGNASA's eclipse experts,

00:12:47 Dr. Michael Kirk.

00:12:49 Thank you so much for joining us.

00:12:50 Oh, it's an absolute honor and a privilege.

00:12:52 I'm so excited to be here today.

00:12:53 So we're currently on the grounds

00:12:55 of the Anderson Abruzzo International Balloon Museum

00:12:57 in Albuquerque, and behind us,

00:12:59 the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta

00:13:01 is also happening.

00:13:03 And in fact, a balloon is also about to get inflated

00:13:06 right behind us, which is really, really exciting.

00:13:09 So Michael, have you seen an annual eclipse before?

00:13:12 I actually, I have seen an annual eclipse

00:13:15 in New Mexico back in 2012,

00:13:18 but this is a special event here today.

00:13:20 The, with the Balloon Fiesta going on,

00:13:23 there are literally thousands of people behind us

00:13:26 all getting ready for this event.

00:13:27 This is one of the most special eclipses I've ever been to.

00:13:31 This will be my first annual eclipse.

00:13:33 I'm really excited and the skies are looking really clear.

00:13:36 So I have my fingers crossed that it stays that way.

00:13:38 So we have these incredible balloons over the past week,

00:13:41 but did you know that NASA also does science experiments

00:13:44 and develops technology using balloons?

00:13:47 They're slightly different from hot air balloons.

00:13:49 So to learn more, I chatted with Chris Yoder

00:13:51 from NASA's Scientific Balloon Program.

00:13:54 Hi, Chris, thank you so much for joining us.

00:13:56 Thank you for having me.

00:13:57 So you're part of NASA's Balloon Program.

00:14:00 What is the difference between a NASA scientific balloon

00:14:03 versus a regular hot air balloon?

00:14:05 Good question.

00:14:06 So hot air balloons are air filled

00:14:09 and the air is heated to create the buoyancy

00:14:11 or the lift that gives them flight.

00:14:13 Generally, they float at a couple thousand feet

00:14:16 and they go up and down in a matter of hours.

00:14:18 Scientific balloons, on the other hand, are quite different.

00:14:21 So our largest balloons can fit a football field

00:14:24 inside their equator

00:14:25 and they can fly for much longer.

00:14:27 So payload capacity is about 8,000 pounds, several SUVs.

00:14:31 The duration can be up to five or six weeks at a time

00:14:36 and the altitudes can be up to 160,000 feet,

00:14:39 about four or five times the height of a commercial airliner.

00:14:42 Wow. It's quite a bit different.

00:14:44 That's incredible.

00:14:45 And you launch all over the globe.

00:14:46 So you launch from New Mexico in the US, New Zealand,

00:14:50 and even McMurdo Station in Antarctica.

00:14:52 Why do you launch from all those different places?

00:14:54 In short, we go where the science needs us to go.

00:14:57 Some scientists need Northern Hemisphere science

00:15:01 for galaxies and star formations.

00:15:03 That's why we go to Sweden.

00:15:04 Same thing in the Southern Hemisphere.

00:15:06 That's why we go to Antarctica.

00:15:08 Most missions need some kind of trial or test system.

00:15:11 So they'll fly from New Mexico to prove their science

00:15:14 or even just collect science at a shorter duration.

00:15:17 And then for missions that are a little more risky,

00:15:20 we'll go out to PMRF in Hawaii.

00:15:21 So can you describe to me what launch day is like?

00:15:23 It's an incredible feeling, right?

00:15:25 So you see the balloon be released.

00:15:27 You hear the rustle of the fabric and the rush

00:15:30 of the wind as it stands up.

00:15:32 You see the balloon be released on the vehicle and ascend.

00:15:35 And it just gives you chills every time you watch it.

00:15:38 It's a really great feeling.

00:15:39 That sounds incredible.

00:15:40 So how many of these balloon experiments

00:15:42 have been sun-focused or eclipse-focused?

00:15:45 So about 8% to 10% of our portfolio

00:15:47 is heliophysics missions.

00:15:49 One of the ones that stands out in my mind

00:15:51 is one I got to see launch in 2019 from New Mexico.

00:15:55 It's called the Bitsy mission.

00:15:56 And it was looking at the corona,

00:15:58 or the outer edge of the sun, and looking

00:16:01 at how that behaves under different conditions.

00:16:03 That sounds amazing.

00:16:04 Thank you so much for joining us.

00:16:05 Thanks again for having me.

00:16:08 Our balloon program has been around since 1961.

00:16:12 So it's no surprise that our balloons are constantly

00:16:14 innovating and discovering new science.

00:16:16 So let's dive into some of the big science discoveries

00:16:19 that have been made with scientific balloons.

00:16:23 High above Earth's surface floats a critical tool

00:16:25 in NASA's exploration arsenal--

00:16:28 scientific balloons.

00:16:30 Massive helium-filled, high-tech balloons

00:16:32 lift heavy scientific experiments into near space

00:16:35 to get a clear view of our planet and the cosmos.

00:16:39 Launched around the globe, these unique NASA missions

00:16:41 provide a fast and cost-effective alternative

00:16:44 to rockets to study Earth, our solar system, and beyond.

00:16:48 Balloon science has led to many important discoveries.

00:16:51 For example, astrophysicist John Mather

00:16:54 studied heat from the early universe using balloons,

00:16:57 which later contributed to his Nobel Prize-winning work

00:16:59 confirming the Big Bang theory of an expanding universe.

00:17:03 A special type of high-altitude balloon

00:17:05 can carry telescopes above the clouds

00:17:07 for extended periods of time to study the dark matter

00:17:10 in distant galaxy clusters.

00:17:12 One of these superpressure balloons, called SuperBit,

00:17:15 captured the Tarantula Nebula 160,000 light-years away.

00:17:20 This winter, crews in Antarctica are preparing

00:17:23 to launch the GUSTO mission.

00:17:25 Its infrared telescope will examine the complete life

00:17:28 cycle of a star.

00:17:30 NASA's Scientific Balloon Program--

00:17:32 guiding a path to discovery above and beyond.

00:17:35 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:17:42 Joined with us now is the balloon museum manager,

00:17:45 Nan Maslin.

00:17:46 Thank you so much for joining us on probably

00:17:47 the busiest week of the year.

00:17:49 I'm so happy to be here with you all.

00:17:52 So we're here at the Fiesta.

00:17:54 It started in the '70s with a small group of people,

00:17:57 and now there are hundreds of balloons.

00:17:59 Can you tell us more about the event

00:18:01 and what it means to the city?

00:18:02 Absolutely.

00:18:03 Well, it started in 1972 by a pilot named Sid Cutter, who

00:18:07 had the idea to get a few hot air balloons together.

00:18:10 He managed to get 13 together in a mall parking lot.

00:18:14 And they expected a handful of people to show up,

00:18:17 and hundreds did.

00:18:18 And that's when he knew he was really onto something.

00:18:21 And 51 years later, there's 100,000 people behind us

00:18:26 on the field right now.

00:18:27 My goodness.

00:18:28 So the balloon museum-- it's where you work,

00:18:31 and it's where we are right now.

00:18:32 Could you tell us a little bit about the relationship

00:18:34 between the balloon museum and the Fiesta itself?

00:18:36 Absolutely.

00:18:37 We are very good neighbors.

00:18:39 We are here 365 days of the year.

00:18:42 We started in 2005, and we start with the early ballooning

00:18:47 in the 1700s up through today, exploring the history,

00:18:52 science, art, and just wonder of ballooning.

00:18:55 And if you haven't been to Albuquerque,

00:18:57 we invite you all to come back and check out this museum.

00:19:02 And what do you love most about the Fiesta and the museum

00:19:07 this week?

00:19:08 New Mexico is such an enchanting place to be.

00:19:12 And the smell of roasting green chili in the air--

00:19:15 there's nothing like it.

00:19:17 There's a reason why Georgia O'Keeffe chose this place

00:19:19 as her home.

00:19:20 It's because of the open sky and the beautiful landscape.

00:19:24 And we get to enjoy so much of that here.

00:19:27 And when you think about it, there's

00:19:28 like a spotlight shining on Albuquerque.

00:19:31 And I think it's probably the best place

00:19:33 in the whole wide world to be right now, today,

00:19:36 balloon Fiesta and an annual eclipse.

00:19:38 I can't imagine anything better.

00:19:41 And how do you feel about an annual eclipse falling

00:19:44 at the same time as the event this year?

00:19:45 It's just fantastic.

00:19:47 I'm so happy to be here with you all.

00:19:49 And Mother Nature has provided us the perfect sky today.

00:19:54 Looking this direction, I don't see a single cloud.

00:19:57 There's a bite out of the sun already,

00:19:59 like it's bitten out of an apple.

00:20:00 And I just am so excited to see the annularity.

00:20:03 Amazing.

00:20:04 Thank you so much for being with us today.

00:20:06 I'm really excited.

00:20:07 Thank you.

00:20:08 Enjoy the annular eclipse together.

00:20:11 So next, we are honored to hear from NASA Administrator Bill

00:20:15 Nelson.

00:20:18 Hey, everybody.

00:20:18 We are so excited that you're joining us today

00:20:21 for this solar eclipse.

00:20:23 It's when the moon passes between the Earth and the sun.

00:20:28 It's a big day for NASA scientists

00:20:31 because eclipses present unique opportunities

00:20:36 to study the sun.

00:20:38 And what we learn from these eclipses,

00:20:42 along with our heliophysics research,

00:20:46 has incredible benefits for our human exploration.

00:20:51 The sun is a powerful, hot, glowing ball

00:20:54 of hydrogen and helium.

00:20:56 And it actually holds together the entire solar system.

00:21:00 Without its energy, we couldn't exist here on Earth.

00:21:03 Just think, it influences everything.

00:21:09 What we do on Earth, growing crops, our economics.

00:21:16 It even affects our physical, mental, and emotional well-being.

00:21:21 We see its influences reflected throughout our culture

00:21:26 as well in art, music, religion, sports.

00:21:30 And when you look up today with your eclipse glasses,

00:21:35 I hope you're going to remember all the ways

00:21:38 that the sun impacts us.

00:21:41 NASA will never stop studying our closest star

00:21:44 for the benefit of all of us terrestrial beings

00:21:49 here on planet Earth.

00:21:51 Thank you, Administrator Nelson.

00:21:56 So Michael, we've been getting a lot of questions

00:21:59 on social media.

00:21:59 Shall we dive in?

00:22:01 Yeah, let's do it.

00:22:02 OK.

00:22:03 So I have a question here from Priyash Patel on YouTube.

00:22:08 And they ask, do events like eclipses

00:22:10 occur in a similar pattern geographically?

00:22:13 Oh, absolutely.

00:22:14 Geographically, we get the same sort of shape of an eclipse

00:22:18 that will move slightly northward in its progression.

00:22:23 So this is called the Sorrow Cycle.

00:22:25 And every 18 years or so, there's

00:22:28 a repeated pattern of an eclipse.

00:22:30 And the pattern itself repeats a little bit further north

00:22:34 each time.

00:22:34 And so we get these overlapping patterns that

00:22:36 are exactly the same over time.

00:22:38 Amazing.

00:22:39 I didn't know that.

00:22:40 That's really surprising.

00:22:42 OK, and before I go on to my second question,

00:22:45 I just want to mention that in the telescope view

00:22:47 now, we are seeing a partial eclipse and a lot of bite

00:22:50 out of the sun.

00:22:51 Oh, yeah, it's getting a bit bigger.

00:22:53 We're not quite to 50% yet.

00:22:55 But yeah, it is getting there.

00:22:56 It's pretty exciting.

00:22:57 That's so exciting.

00:22:58 OK, so the second question I have is Sammy Conner on YouTube.

00:23:03 And they ask, how does the Ring of Fire eclipse

00:23:05 affect the light from the sun reaching Earth?

00:23:08 That's a fantastic question, because this

00:23:11 has something to do with the science

00:23:12 that we can do with eclipses as well.

00:23:14 So as the sun gets blocked by the moon progressively,

00:23:19 there are parts of the sun, active regions specifically,

00:23:21 that will be blocked.

00:23:23 And the light from the active regions

00:23:24 won't be able to hit the Earth's atmosphere.

00:23:27 So we can actually study the effects.

00:23:28 We can actually study these effects.

00:23:30 We'll hear a little bit more about this later in the program.

00:23:33 Amazing.

00:23:33 OK, so our third question is, one of our viewers on YouTube

00:23:37 asks, how do eclipse glasses work?

00:23:40 That's a great question.

00:23:41 So these things.

00:23:42 Yeah, we have eclipse glasses.

00:23:43 OK, so you see the lenses right here.

00:23:45 This is a Mylar film.

00:23:47 And the coating on it blocks over 99% of the white light

00:23:52 that comes here.

00:23:52 Not only that, but it also blocks

00:23:54 infrared and ultraviolet light.

00:23:55 So it keeps your entire eye safe.

00:23:57 So it's really that coating that keeps us safe

00:24:00 from the powerful sun's light.

00:24:02 I'm glad.

00:24:03 Me too.

00:24:04 Thank you so much, Michael.

00:24:05 Of course.

00:24:06 So remember, wherever you're watching the show,

00:24:10 ask a question in the comments below using the hashtag

00:24:13 #AskNASA.

00:24:14 And we'll be answering more later today.

00:24:16 So now, let's head back to Tahira and Gina

00:24:19 in Kerbal, Texas.

00:24:22 Thank you, Joy and Michael.

00:24:23 The weather looks great in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

00:24:25 It does, yeah.

00:24:26 So folks, if you're just joining us,

00:24:28 we're following the 2023 annular solar eclipse

00:24:31 as it sweeps across the Americas.

00:24:34 Now, coming up soon, James at our eclipse desk

00:24:37 will be plugging us into our very first views

00:24:40 of annularity taking place in Eugene, Oregon.

00:24:43 Now, Gina, as we anticipate this beginning first moment,

00:24:47 can you walk us through what exactly

00:24:48 is happening when an annularity takes place?

00:24:51 Sure, so when the annularity is taking place,

00:24:54 that's when the moon is going to be in front of the sun.

00:24:57 Now, for the annular eclipse, it's

00:24:59 not going to completely block the sun.

00:25:01 So we'll have that ring of fire that we get to see in the sky.

00:25:04 And if you take a look at that live feed from the telescope

00:25:07 that we're seeing right now in Kerbal,

00:25:09 we already have a bite taken out of the sun

00:25:11 from our perspective as well.

00:25:12 Wow, and so that's just going to pass directly over,

00:25:16 but not fully cover it.

00:25:17 Exactly, we'll still have that ring peeking out.

00:25:19 Beautiful.

00:25:20 I mean, we're seeing something, but will anything else happen?

00:25:24 Like, will we feel anything?

00:25:25 Yeah, so that's the fun thing about these solar eclipses

00:25:28 is the fact that there will be environmental changes.

00:25:31 So we'll feel that temperature drop, maybe a change

00:25:34 in humidity and wind as well, but also nature will respond.

00:25:37 So check out how it feels around you.

00:25:41 The birds will nest and go back to their trees.

00:25:43 The crickets will come out, starting to chirp.

00:25:45 It'll feel kind of dramatic when this happens too.

00:25:49 I can't wait to feel that with you today.

00:25:50 And folks, I mean, it's not just us here on Earth

00:25:53 plugged into today's action.

00:25:55 Emily Ferfaro with NASA Communications

00:25:57 had a chance to chat with two astronauts aboard the

00:26:00 International Space Station to learn more about the sun

00:26:03 from their unique perspective off our planet.

00:26:07 Jasmine, Satoshi, this is so exciting

00:26:09 to be talking with you.

00:26:11 This is the coolest thing that I've ever done.

00:26:13 As you know, all eyes are going to be on the sun on October 14

00:26:17 as we experience an annular solar eclipse.

00:26:21 And so I'm wondering, have either of you ever seen

00:26:24 a solar eclipse of any kind?

00:26:26 - Emily, actually, coincidentally, my very first day

00:26:31 at NASA was August 21st, 2017,

00:26:35 which was an incredible solar eclipse.

00:26:37 All my classmates and I got to go outside

00:26:40 and stare up with everyone, pretty much everyone else

00:26:43 at NASA was outside in those moments

00:26:45 looking at the solar eclipse.

00:26:47 So that's something I'll always remember.

00:26:49 - Wow, oh my gosh, what an incredible first day

00:26:52 that must have been.

00:26:53 Solar eclipse events provide scientists

00:26:55 with a unique opportunity to study the sun

00:26:58 in different ways.

00:26:59 So with that, I'm wondering, how do you study space weather

00:27:02 and impacts from the sun on the International Space Station?

00:27:05 - Well, Emily, from the International Space Station,

00:27:08 we have a really unique vantage point

00:27:11 looking back at the Earth,

00:27:12 but also there are several experiments actually mounted

00:27:15 right outside here on the Japanese experiment facility

00:27:20 outside of the Gem module.

00:27:22 - Regarding the space weather,

00:27:24 specifically from solar flare activities point of view,

00:27:29 a specialist on the ground kindly observe it continuously.

00:27:34 And when there is a big solar flare, they notifies it of us

00:27:39 and we move to a relatively safe place

00:27:41 on the International Space Station.

00:27:43 - Wow, I am so glad that you're well protected up there

00:27:46 on the International Space Station.

00:27:48 I wanna touch back on the annular solar eclipse.

00:27:51 This celestial event kickstarts NASA's Heliophysics Big Year,

00:27:56 which is a global celebration of sun science

00:27:59 and a year where we're inviting the public

00:28:01 to do as many sun-related activities as possible.

00:28:04 And so I'm wondering,

00:28:05 what is your favorite thing about the sun?

00:28:07 - Well, Emily, for me, I don't particularly like the dark

00:28:13 and I don't particularly like being cold.

00:28:16 So I'm a big fan of the light

00:28:18 and the warmth that the sun brings.

00:28:20 We wouldn't be the planet we are without the sun.

00:28:23 - Hey, Emily, I echo Joss

00:28:31 and I like the brightness as the warmth of the sun

00:28:34 and I'm looking forward to the next solar eclipse.

00:28:37 - That reminds me of something

00:28:38 that my friends in Heliophysics say,

00:28:40 which is that the sun touches everything.

00:28:43 With that, I wanna thank you so much

00:28:45 for taking the time to chat with me today about the sun.

00:28:47 And I hope that you both have a great view of the eclipse

00:28:50 wherever you might be

00:28:51 and good luck with the rest of your mission.

00:28:53 - Thanks so much, Emily.

00:28:55 Have a good one.

00:28:55 - Station, this is Houston ACR.

00:29:02 Thank you.

00:29:03 - I mean, how cool is that?

00:29:07 Can you imagine seeing the shadow

00:29:10 of an eclipse on Earth from space?

00:29:12 It would just have to be incredible.

00:29:14 Now, folks, the crowd is growing here in Kerrville, Texas

00:29:18 as we inch closer to our moment to witness

00:29:21 that ring of fire effect in person.

00:29:24 Now, it's a good time to check in

00:29:26 with James at our eclipse desk.

00:29:28 James, how are things looking on your end?

00:29:30 - Hey, Tahira, yes, we're still just a little bit away

00:29:32 from the annularity here in Kerrville, Texas.

00:29:35 Really cool to see the science going on

00:29:37 in the International Space Station.

00:29:38 Coincidentally, there's actually some really cool science

00:29:41 going on just a little bit to the west of us

00:29:43 in just a few moments in White Sands, New Mexico.

00:29:46 And right now I'm actually joined by scientist Jamie Favors

00:29:49 who can walk us through exactly what we're about to see

00:29:51 with this sounding rocket launch.

00:29:52 Jamie, thanks so much for joining us.

00:29:53 - Thank you so much, James.

00:29:54 - Yeah, so is this your first annular eclipse?

00:29:56 - It is, yeah, and first time launching rockets

00:29:58 into an eclipse too, so.

00:29:59 - Amazing, and we're about to have

00:30:01 the first of three launches.

00:30:02 I understand we're kind of timing these launches

00:30:04 out to specific times here, right?

00:30:06 - Yeah, so you're exactly right.

00:30:07 So we'll have three launches during the eclipse

00:30:09 about 35 minutes before the peak,

00:30:11 that'll be this first one, right in the middle of the peak,

00:30:13 and then 35 minutes after the peak.

00:30:15 Studying that upper atmosphere, the ionosphere,

00:30:18 kind of see what are those impacts from the sun

00:30:21 that really change important features

00:30:23 of the upper atmosphere that impact things

00:30:24 like radio communications, satellite operations.

00:30:28 - And we just had a launch yesterday

00:30:29 in Cape Canaveral, Florida of our Psyche mission.

00:30:31 That's going out into deep space,

00:30:33 but these rockets were just launched actually here.

00:30:35 This is, just took off, so this is actually

00:30:37 gonna come back down afterwards.

00:30:38 - That's right, so we're seeing first stage burnout here,

00:30:40 about six seconds in.

00:30:43 We'll leak out for a second,

00:30:45 so the rocket's still moving along.

00:30:46 Then we see the rail, the pad that we just launched from.

00:30:49 So as we're launching into space,

00:30:51 we're gonna start making measurements

00:30:52 roughly about a minute into launch,

00:30:53 so we're a few seconds in now.

00:30:54 I bet we're getting pretty close to the second stage

00:30:57 lighting off at this point to take us

00:30:58 all the way into space.

00:30:59 So roughly that one minute mark is where we start

00:31:01 to do a lot of the science.

00:31:03 The payload separates from the rocket.

00:31:05 We have some deployables we'll release

00:31:07 from that payload out at that point.

00:31:09 We'll start moving that payload around in space

00:31:11 so they're starting to make good measurements.

00:31:12 We have these booms or arms that come off of the payload,

00:31:15 start making different measurements there

00:31:17 of magnetic structures, electric structures

00:31:19 in the upper atmosphere, as well as temperature and density.

00:31:22 One way to kind of think about this,

00:31:24 what the shadow of the eclipse is doing

00:31:26 in that upper atmosphere is kind of,

00:31:28 it's creating these waves as all those temperature

00:31:30 and density changes are occurring.

00:31:32 So kind of think about it in the way of a boat

00:31:34 moving through the water.

00:31:35 We've all seen a boat move and you see the waves

00:31:37 propagating out from it or moving away from the boat.

00:31:39 That same thing is happening here

00:31:40 with the eclipse and that shadow.

00:31:42 So with those three rockets, we're launching one right

00:31:44 before the boat moves through,

00:31:46 one right in the middle of the boat coming by,

00:31:47 and then one right after the boat moves through

00:31:49 or the eclipse shadow.

00:31:50 - Sweet, and so we are just now a couple minutes away

00:31:53 from actually getting annularity here in Kerrville, Texas.

00:31:56 Our first view is actually gonna be up

00:31:58 in the Pacific Northwest, up in Eugene, Oregon.

00:32:00 They are gonna be experiencing this

00:32:02 starting at around 9.17 local time.

00:32:04 Jamie, thank you so much for joining us.

00:32:06 Best of luck for the next two launches.

00:32:07 - Yeah, thank you so much, James.

00:32:08 - Back to you, Tahira.

00:32:10 - Wow, I mean, if the day wasn't exciting enough,

00:32:13 now we've got a rocket launch in the mix.

00:32:15 This is so exciting.

00:32:17 It's incredible. - It's great.

00:32:18 - And I mean, what a NASA broadcast, right?

00:32:22 And so thank you, James and Jamie.

00:32:24 Now, Gina, we have a lot of great questions

00:32:26 rolling in from our viewers online.

00:32:28 How do you feel about taking a few?

00:32:29 - Let's do it.

00:32:30 - Okay, let's do it.

00:32:31 So our first question is from Entertainment on Facebook,

00:32:34 who asks, "How often do eclipses happen?"

00:32:38 - Great question.

00:32:39 Well, thank you for that.

00:32:39 So there are actually eclipse seasons.

00:32:42 And so we can get eclipses about two to three times a year.

00:32:47 You might expect them to happen

00:32:49 every time there's a new moon, but that's not the case

00:32:52 because the orbit of the moon is tilted

00:32:54 by about five degrees, which means sometimes the shadow

00:32:57 is a little too high and it doesn't hit Earth

00:32:59 and sometimes a little too low.

00:33:01 So we need those eclipse seasons as that sweet spot.

00:33:04 - Okay, nice.

00:33:05 And so I actually have a really great follow-up to that.

00:33:08 - Okay.

00:33:08 - Spectacular Science Podcast on YouTube asks,

00:33:13 "How do you predict solar eclipses?"

00:33:15 - Okay, well, it's actually pretty straightforward

00:33:18 how to calculate the eclipses

00:33:20 because we have a good understanding of the moon's orbit.

00:33:23 We have a good understanding of the Earth's orbit

00:33:26 and how that whole system is connected.

00:33:28 And so we kind of take that,

00:33:30 the geometry and the inputs that we have,

00:33:31 and we're able to very pretty accurately

00:33:35 predict those eclipses.

00:33:36 And so these are things that we can look out decades

00:33:39 in advance to understand when eclipses can occur.

00:33:42 - Oh, cool.

00:33:43 And so how often would an eclipse pass in the same city?

00:33:47 Do you know?

00:33:48 - Well, so for total solar eclipses,

00:33:51 it's very unique for an eclipse to pass more than,

00:33:56 it's about once every 375 years

00:33:58 that a location can experience it.

00:34:01 So it's pretty hard to be in the same spot

00:34:04 to see a total solar eclipse more than once.

00:34:06 - Awesome.

00:34:07 - Yeah.

00:34:08 - So we have a user on X who asks,

00:34:12 "Will the International Space Station

00:34:14 photo bomb the eclipse?"

00:34:16 That would look very cool.

00:34:18 - Yeah, and so we just got to hear from,

00:34:21 you know, the International Space Station.

00:34:23 And the unique thing about our astronauts on board

00:34:26 is that they have a totally different vantage point

00:34:28 for studying the eclipses.

00:34:31 And they get to actually view the shadow of the moon

00:34:34 as it passes over the earth.

00:34:35 And there are experiments that we have

00:34:37 on board the space station as well.

00:34:38 And so, you know, with NASA,

00:34:40 we have all of these different eclipse experiments

00:34:43 that are taking place,

00:34:44 and we try to take advantage of every perspective

00:34:46 that we have.

00:34:47 - Awesome.

00:34:49 So we have a final question from Dante.

00:34:52 This is gonna be a quick one.

00:34:53 - Okay.

00:34:54 - But Dante on Facebook, who wants to know,

00:34:55 "Will the moon block solar wind along its path

00:34:59 during this ring of fire eclipse?"

00:35:01 - Oh, I love that question.

00:35:03 So the solar wind is actually a stream of charged particles

00:35:08 that's constantly coming off of the sun,

00:35:10 and it interacts with the earth

00:35:11 and other planets in our solar system.

00:35:14 Now, the earth's magnetic field

00:35:16 actually blocks a majority of those particles

00:35:19 from interacting with earth.

00:35:20 Some are able to get through

00:35:22 and interact with our upper atmosphere,

00:35:24 but for the sake of the eclipse,

00:35:26 most of the particles will still kind of be able

00:35:29 to be deflected around the earth's magnetic field.

00:35:32 There will be some that are able to interact with the moon,

00:35:34 but it wouldn't have a huge impact

00:35:36 on what we experience at earth.

00:35:38 - Fantastic.

00:35:39 Thank you so much, Gina.

00:35:40 And thank you to everybody

00:35:41 sending in these questions online.

00:35:43 We will get to some more of what you want to know

00:35:46 by later on in the show.

00:35:47 So keep sending those questions in

00:35:49 using the hashtag #AskNASA.

00:35:52 Now, let's check in with Joy and Michael

00:35:54 to see what's new in Albuquerque.

00:35:56 Joy, how's it going?

00:35:57 - Thanks to her and Gina.

00:36:01 So we're just under 30 minutes away

00:36:03 from annularity in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

00:36:06 Michael, shall we put on our glasses

00:36:07 to see what the sun and moon are doing?

00:36:09 - Yeah, let's do it.

00:36:10 - Okay.

00:36:11 - Okay, so you're seeing a deep partial solar eclipse.

00:36:16 More than half of the sun is blocked out,

00:36:18 and so you just see a crescent of sunlight peeking out.

00:36:21 - Wow, that is amazing.

00:36:24 Annularity is just going to be stunning.

00:36:26 I can't wait.

00:36:26 - Oh, I can't wait either.

00:36:27 This is terribly exciting.

00:36:29 You can see a balloon inflating behind us.

00:36:31 We have annularity coming.

00:36:33 It is all coming together today.

00:36:34 - I just can't believe that an annular eclipse

00:36:36 is happening at the same time as the fiesta.

00:36:38 - It really feels special, doesn't it?

00:36:40 - And actually, earlier this week,

00:36:42 I even got to fly in a whole air balloon,

00:36:44 which is just amazing.

00:36:46 - That's fantastic.

00:36:47 - I met an amazing balloon pilot, Jonathan Wolfe,

00:36:49 who's been launching balloons in Albuquerque for decades.

00:36:53 So let's take a look at our ride.

00:36:55 So for complete newbies, how does a hot air balloon work?

00:37:03 - It's a great question.

00:37:04 It's physics, simply.

00:37:06 We heat up the air inside the balloon,

00:37:09 and that makes it less dense,

00:37:11 and then that makes it float.

00:37:15 Now, what that means, though,

00:37:17 is we can only control up and down.

00:37:20 The way we fly and the way we navigate

00:37:23 is by choosing different layers of air to fly in.

00:37:27 - And I've heard that there is a box, the Albuquerque box.

00:37:32 Could you explain what that means?

00:37:33 - Certainly.

00:37:34 It's one of the reasons why Albuquerque

00:37:35 is a famous place for ballooning.

00:37:36 Sometimes what happens is at a higher elevation,

00:37:40 the wind is going to the north,

00:37:42 and at the surface, it's going to the south.

00:37:45 That's what we call the Albuquerque box.

00:37:47 Sometimes the box works out such that you can fly

00:37:50 to the south and go up, fly to the north,

00:37:52 and then come down and fly back south

00:37:55 and land right where you took off,

00:37:57 which is an extraordinary and wonderful accomplishment.

00:37:59 It's super fun when you can do that.

00:38:01 - So for someone who's never been in a balloon,

00:38:04 what is it like?

00:38:05 - It's unlike any other form of flying.

00:38:07 In a balloon, you're actually outside, right?

00:38:11 You're standing in a little basket,

00:38:13 and there's no windows.

00:38:15 You're just out there in the air,

00:38:16 and it's just science, right?

00:38:19 It's buoyancy.

00:38:20 Like I said, it's applied physics,

00:38:23 but it feels like magic.

00:38:24 It's a ballooner eclipse.

00:38:25 - Oh, yeah!

00:38:26 - I love that.

00:38:27 It's very calm.

00:38:29 There's no movement, no wind.

00:38:32 When you're moving, you're moving with the wind,

00:38:33 so you're at equilibrium.

00:38:35 It feels very calm and peaceful.

00:38:37 At the same time, it's really exciting, and it's intense.

00:38:40 So it's this wonderful combination of intensity

00:38:44 and mellow, serene, tranquil, beauty, absorbing nature.

00:38:49 You can never experience that in any other form of flight.

00:38:52 - Wow, that brings back great memories.

00:38:58 And if you can hear the wind behind us,

00:39:01 they're actually inflating the balloon I rode in

00:39:03 just behind us, which is so cool.

00:39:05 - So was that your first balloon ride?

00:39:07 - It was my first balloon ride, yes.

00:39:08 - Oh my goodness.

00:39:09 How did it go?

00:39:10 I remember taking one about 20 years ago,

00:39:12 and it was fantastic.

00:39:13 What was your experience?

00:39:15 - The most surprising thing is that when you're up there,

00:39:17 you don't feel any wind against you,

00:39:19 because you're actually moving with the wind,

00:39:21 so it feels completely calm.

00:39:24 - Oh, that's fantastic.

00:39:25 So would you do it again?

00:39:26 I found it terribly relaxing.

00:39:28 - 100%, yes.

00:39:30 So it was actually also not that chilly,

00:39:33 and we were only a few hundred feet off the ground as well.

00:39:35 - Wow, that's amazing,

00:39:36 'cause it's been chilly here all morning.

00:39:38 - So as we learned earlier,

00:39:40 NASA's scientific balloons fly much higher.

00:39:43 They actually reach a part of our upper atmosphere

00:39:45 where our International Space Station lives,

00:39:47 and where some of our satellites fly as well.

00:39:49 So it's really important we learn about this upper region

00:39:52 and how it could affect our lives on Earth.

00:39:54 And NASA and NOAA are two agencies in the US

00:39:57 that work together to help study this.

00:39:59 And I'm joined with two people who can tell us more.

00:40:01 So we have Dr. Elsea Talat from NOAA

00:40:04 and Dr. Kelly Corrick from NASA.

00:40:05 Thank you both so much for joining us.

00:40:07 - Very excited to be here.

00:40:08 - Very excited to be here, thank you so much.

00:40:11 - So let's start off with the basics.

00:40:13 Elsea, what are these changes we see in the upper region?

00:40:17 - Well, that's part of what we call space weather,

00:40:20 which is the variable conditions on the sun,

00:40:22 the Earth, and near-Earth space

00:40:24 due to solar and geomagnetic activity and storms.

00:40:28 And that can affect human activity

00:40:30 and our technological infrastructure.

00:40:32 - Fascinating.

00:40:34 So Kelly, how does space weather

00:40:36 actually affect our life here on Earth?

00:40:39 - Well, Elsea alluded to the fact

00:40:41 that it challenges our technology.

00:40:43 So our power grids are sensitive to those currents

00:40:45 that can be induced by this,

00:40:47 as well as our satellites could also be impacted

00:40:49 by these flares or the space weather.

00:40:51 And we get some beautiful things too.

00:40:53 We get the aurora out of it.

00:40:55 - Have you ever seen the aurora?

00:40:56 - I have, it was absolutely beautiful.

00:40:58 I laid on the ground for hours in the snow watching it.

00:41:01 - So talking about space weather

00:41:03 and the activity in our upper atmosphere,

00:41:05 how do NOAA and NASA work together

00:41:08 to better understand those phenomena?

00:41:11 - NOAA is a go-to resource for space weather information.

00:41:15 It watches the sun and the Earth 24/7,

00:41:18 and it's the nation's official source

00:41:20 of forecast warnings and alerts for space weather

00:41:23 to help decision makers prevent

00:41:25 and mitigate the effects of space weather here on Earth.

00:41:28 In order to do this, we need information,

00:41:30 and NOAA works with NASA to design, develop,

00:41:35 and deploy space weather operational satellites

00:41:38 to safeguard our society.

00:41:40 - And what's NASA's role?

00:41:42 - So NASA is a partner with NOAA,

00:41:44 and we focus on the science and make sure

00:41:47 that we're understanding our star

00:41:49 and can do better and better predictions.

00:41:50 So scientists use models and the data

00:41:53 from all of these satellites

00:41:55 in order to better understand space weather.

00:41:57 - And what are some of the biggest mysteries

00:41:59 around space weather?

00:42:00 What don't we know about it?

00:42:01 - Oh, there's so much.

00:42:02 I mean, let's start at the sun, right?

00:42:04 That's the focus today.

00:42:05 Even how to predict flares long-term

00:42:08 or those large coronal mass ejections,

00:42:10 those billions of tons of material that come off,

00:42:12 we don't quite know how to predict them for a long-term yet.

00:42:16 - Well, I'm so glad we have two agencies on the case.

00:42:19 Thank you both, Ilse and Kelly.

00:42:22 Thank you both for joining us.

00:42:24 So did you know that space weather

00:42:26 is also affected by solar eclipses?

00:42:29 One citizen science project does experiments

00:42:31 during the annular solar eclipse and the total solar eclipse.

00:42:34 So let's learn more about that project.

00:42:38 When the moon blocks the sun during a solar eclipse,

00:42:40 there is a noticeable impact on Earth's upper atmosphere,

00:42:43 known as the ionosphere.

00:42:46 These changes can affect radio communications,

00:42:48 including amateur radio, also known as ham radio.

00:42:52 - Ham radio is a way you can talk to people

00:42:54 all around the world.

00:42:55 You set up a radio and antenna.

00:42:58 You talk into the radio,

00:42:59 the radio sends a signal up to the antenna.

00:43:02 The antenna sends a signal up to the sky.

00:43:05 It bounces off of the electrified layer of the sky,

00:43:09 back down to Earth,

00:43:10 where you can talk to the person on the other side.

00:43:12 - During the 2023 annular eclipse

00:43:15 and the 2024 total eclipse,

00:43:17 the HamSci citizen science project

00:43:19 is inviting ham radio operators to transmit radio signals.

00:43:23 The goal is to have people make as many radio contacts

00:43:26 as they can with operators in different locations

00:43:29 during these celestial events.

00:43:31 By recording how strong their radio signals are

00:43:34 and how far they go,

00:43:35 ham radio operators and scientists

00:43:37 can learn about how the ionosphere changes

00:43:40 during solar eclipses.

00:43:42 - Sometimes you can talk around the world

00:43:44 and sometimes you can't.

00:43:45 And that's all based on what the ionosphere is doing,

00:43:49 what the sun is doing.

00:43:50 When it works and you are able to talk

00:43:52 to these faraway places,

00:43:53 I find that really magical.

00:43:55 - To learn how you can participate,

00:43:57 follow Do NASA Science on X and Facebook.

00:44:03 There are currently HamSci experiments happening

00:44:05 right now across the country,

00:44:07 and there'll be more during the total solar eclipse

00:44:09 on April 8th, 2024.

00:44:11 If you want to learn how to participate,

00:44:13 go to hamsci.org.

00:44:15 So next, we're thrilled to be joined

00:44:17 with the acting director

00:44:18 of NASA's Heliophysics Division, Peg Luce.

00:44:21 Peg, thank you so much for joining us.

00:44:22 - Oh, it's such a pleasure.

00:44:24 - So how are you feeling about the annular eclipse today?

00:44:27 - Wow, it's happening.

00:44:30 And we've been looking forward to this for so long.

00:44:33 These are a rare celestial event

00:44:35 that people can actually experience the effects of.

00:44:38 So it's really, really exciting.

00:44:40 - I'm so, so excited.

00:44:41 - I am too.

00:44:42 - So we've been chatting about the sun all morning,

00:44:45 but can you tell us in detail what heliophysics is?

00:44:49 - That is a good question.

00:44:51 Many people ask.

00:44:53 Heliophysics is actually a word

00:44:54 that isn't yet in the dictionary.

00:44:56 So we want to put it there.

00:44:58 But helio is the sun.

00:45:00 Physics, the science of matter and energy

00:45:03 and how they interact.

00:45:03 So we study the sun, how it works,

00:45:07 how its energy flows out and affects all the planets,

00:45:10 creates the solar system.

00:45:12 And it's a very complex field and very exciting to study.

00:45:17 - So we heard earlier that the sun touches everything.

00:45:21 Can you describe a little bit

00:45:23 about how the sun touches other NASA science disciplines?

00:45:25 - Yes.

00:45:26 I like to say that heliophysics is really the science

00:45:30 that interfaces and collaborates

00:45:31 with all of the other areas of science that NASA studies.

00:45:35 For instance, the sun is a star.

00:45:38 And it's the only star that we can actually study up close.

00:45:42 So for our astrophysics friends,

00:45:47 we can learn in detail how our star looks,

00:45:51 how it changes, how dynamic it is.

00:45:53 So when they're using their tools,

00:45:55 like James Webb Space Telescope to study distant stars,

00:45:59 they have up close information from what we have learned.

00:46:03 And then of course, the sun's energy flows

00:46:06 around all of the planets.

00:46:08 It interacts with the earth.

00:46:10 Space weather affects the atmosphere of the earth.

00:46:13 And so it really is a collaborative

00:46:17 and exciting field of study.

00:46:20 - I love that the sun touches everything at NASA.

00:46:22 So how does NASA touch everything we have here on earth?

00:46:26 - So I like to take this opportunity

00:46:29 to remind people about NASA science.

00:46:33 So when most people, when they think of NASA,

00:46:35 they think of astronauts and human space flight,

00:46:38 which is of course so exciting,

00:46:40 but NASA science is rewriting the textbooks all the time.

00:46:44 We have so many discoveries and just so much.

00:46:49 We have a Parker Solar Probe

00:46:51 that is flying through the corona of the sun.

00:46:54 We have the Voyagers that are outside the heliosphere.

00:46:58 We have so much to learn

00:47:00 that I could never even begin to talk about it,

00:47:03 but I wanna invite people to go to NASA at home

00:47:06 and check it out.

00:47:07 As you'll get just a little bit of more information

00:47:10 about all that NASA science does.

00:47:13 - It's an exciting time for NASA science.

00:47:14 - It really is. - Yes.

00:47:15 Thank you so much, Peg.

00:47:16 - Thank you.

00:47:18 - So now let's head back to the Eclipse desk

00:47:20 in Kerbal, Texas, where they're about to start tracking

00:47:22 the start of the annular eclipse across the United States.

00:47:26 - Thank you, Joy, Michael, and Peg.

00:47:29 And Joy, you are absolutely right.

00:47:32 Folks, we are moments away from the start

00:47:34 of today's annular eclipse in Oregon.

00:47:37 Now I know, I'm excited.

00:47:39 This will be the first time I've ever witnessed

00:47:42 one of these events, and I hope you are too.

00:47:44 - It'll be my first annular eclipse as well,

00:47:47 but to be honest, I was lucky enough to see

00:47:49 the 2017 total solar eclipse,

00:47:51 and that experience was amazing.

00:47:53 So I think we're in for a treat today.

00:47:55 - So this is gonna be a totally new experience for you.

00:47:57 - It will be, yeah.

00:47:58 - And so Gina, actually, you know what?

00:48:00 Let's go ahead and see if we can pull up the telescope feed

00:48:03 from our friends at Time and Date.

00:48:05 Wow. - Look at that.

00:48:08 San Diego. - Oh, San Diego.

00:48:10 We've got a live view of San Diego, California right now.

00:48:13 What a beautiful partial eclipse.

00:48:16 - Yeah, I mean, the sun, it's a crescent.

00:48:18 Normally we refer to the moon as a crescent moon,

00:48:21 but this time it's the sun.

00:48:22 - And I mean, normally we see, you know,

00:48:24 the sun in the sky, the moon in the sky.

00:48:27 Occasionally they might be together,

00:48:29 but to see them overlapping, it's just,

00:48:33 it really reminds you that we're a part of this

00:48:34 just entire system. - I know.

00:48:37 And so-- - If you're playing together,

00:48:38 right, and you can tell, I mean, from this view,

00:48:41 you can really appreciate the fact that,

00:48:44 from our perspective, the moon and the sun

00:48:46 seem to look like they're the same size,

00:48:48 even though in reality they're not, right?

00:48:51 - It's incredible.

00:48:51 You know what, right now, let's go ahead

00:48:53 and check in with James at our eclipse desk.

00:48:56 James, what's the latest?

00:48:59 - Yeah, hey, Tahira.

00:49:00 So we have officially kicked off annularity

00:49:02 here in the United States.

00:49:04 If we look at our Eclipse Explorer,

00:49:05 you can see that the area of effect of that annular eclipse

00:49:08 has now hit Eugene, Oregon.

00:49:10 They should have a phenomenal view there.

00:49:12 Just a reminder to all of our viewers

00:49:14 who are in that region, the Pacific Northwest,

00:49:16 be sure to use your eclipse glasses

00:49:18 as you're looking at the sun and the moon above.

00:49:20 You should have a beautiful sight at this moment.

00:49:22 That's gonna last for just a couple minutes,

00:49:24 so really take advantage of that big moment.

00:49:26 You just saw that view in San Diego.

00:49:28 Even if you're outside of this area,

00:49:29 you might still have a beautiful view of a partial eclipse.

00:49:32 And if I zoom in onto our little area of annularity,

00:49:36 you'll notice kind of a couple little bumps

00:49:38 and things here, which you might initially think

00:49:41 is because it's low resolution,

00:49:43 maybe it's a little bit low res here,

00:49:45 but the inverse is actually true.

00:49:48 We actually have an incredible amount of data

00:49:50 feeding into our Eclipse Explorer

00:49:51 to generate the images and the predictions

00:49:53 that you're seeing on your screen.

00:49:55 This tool takes into account two unique things.

00:49:58 One is obviously the topography of Earth,

00:50:01 so mountains, river valleys,

00:50:03 all kinds of little divots and things

00:50:04 as that shadow moves across the land.

00:50:07 But also, and really interestingly,

00:50:09 it takes into account the shape of the moon.

00:50:12 When you think of the moon,

00:50:13 you might just think it's perfectly circular,

00:50:15 but there are so many little objects

00:50:17 like mountains and craters and all kinds of things

00:50:19 dotting the surface that are all being fed

00:50:22 into this prediction that you're seeing here

00:50:23 that will then show you exactly

00:50:25 what the shadow is gonna look like.

00:50:26 You won't really be able to see this difference

00:50:28 from the ground, but if you're up in space

00:50:30 looking down at this, you'll actually be able to see

00:50:32 that area kind of ripple almost

00:50:34 as it's moving across the terrain.

00:50:35 So definitely I encourage you to check out this tool.

00:50:38 It's a really phenomenal one that's really just

00:50:40 using so much data to feed into this.

00:50:43 And again, even if you're outside of this area,

00:50:45 I encourage you to use our tool

00:50:48 to kind of predict what you're gonna see.

00:50:49 So if I scroll all the way over to the East Coast

00:50:51 and I zoom all the way out here,

00:50:52 you can just see just how large this area

00:50:55 of partial eclipse is.

00:50:56 This kind of outer circle that you see here

00:50:58 is areas that might be having a partial eclipse.

00:51:01 So if I click on, for example, Philadelphia,

00:51:03 I know quite a few people watching there,

00:51:05 looks like it might be a little bit rainy,

00:51:06 but if the sky clears up for you,

00:51:08 you'll have a peak coverage for your partial eclipse

00:51:11 at around 121 local time.

00:51:12 So still plenty of time for you to get your glasses ready

00:51:16 in order to get your pinhole projectors created.

00:51:18 You had that instructions earlier in the broadcast

00:51:21 and really just take advantage

00:51:22 of this incredible celestial moment.

00:51:25 These don't really happen very often.

00:51:26 So it's a really unique experience

00:51:28 to be able to witness this live from here in Kerrville, Texas.

00:51:31 Just a few moments, we'll actually be able to have that view

00:51:33 from right here.

00:51:34 I can hear the crowd already kind of buzzing.

00:51:36 People have all their glasses ready to go,

00:51:38 already kind of looking up and observing that partial eclipse.

00:51:41 You just saw that coverage in San Diego.

00:51:43 This is really sweeping across such a big area

00:51:45 of the United States, and it's gonna continue to move

00:51:48 closer and closer and closer to us.

00:51:50 You can see already,

00:51:51 since I've just started this conversation here,

00:51:54 we've already moved away from Eugene,

00:51:55 so they are no longer in annularity,

00:51:57 and this is continuing to move into parts of Nevada.

00:52:00 This will then continue to track further southeast

00:52:03 to our friends out in Albuquerque at the Balloon Festival.

00:52:05 We'll have a phenomenal view there,

00:52:08 intermixed with the balloons and everything.

00:52:10 It'll look awesome.

00:52:11 And you're also seeing right now

00:52:12 our live view of Kerrville, Texas.

00:52:14 You can see we're already in pretty good coverage here

00:52:16 with the partial eclipse.

00:52:17 If I click on a Kerrville on our interactive map,

00:52:20 you can see that we're expecting our peak coverage

00:52:22 of the annularity to begin at 1150.

00:52:25 And I'll remind you again,

00:52:26 if you're using our interactive tool,

00:52:28 these are all clickable too.

00:52:29 So if you wanted to click onto those

00:52:30 and to see exactly what time

00:52:32 and exactly what it's gonna look like, actually,

00:52:34 this is a prediction of what it's gonna look like

00:52:36 in your neck of the woods.

00:52:38 And so actually the path you're seeing this moon taking

00:52:41 is the exact path it's gonna look like the moon's taking

00:52:43 in real life for you.

00:52:44 So that little googly eye is showing that directionality.

00:52:47 So for us, the moon has already entered in

00:52:49 from kind of above the sun here.

00:52:50 It's gonna continue tracking down,

00:52:52 eventually giving us that incredible ring of fire effect.

00:52:55 I can't wait to see this live.

00:52:57 This'll be the first time for me

00:52:58 ever seeing an annularity alive.

00:53:01 I'm super excited.

00:53:02 So the hit is coming up again

00:53:04 in Albuquerque, New Mexico in just a little bit.

00:53:05 They'll get a phenomenal view there.

00:53:07 Keep tracking it.

00:53:08 But for now, back to you, Tahira.

00:53:10 - Incredible, James.

00:53:12 And I mean, I think earlier you said buzzing.

00:53:14 Like, Gina, it feels like the town is coming alive.

00:53:17 - It is.

00:53:18 - It's starting to get a little colder here.

00:53:19 - I know, I'm kind of chilled.

00:53:21 So I mean, looking around,

00:53:23 you can just see people are kind of lounging back

00:53:25 with their safety eclipse glasses

00:53:27 and just taking it all in and getting excited for this.

00:53:30 - And so, and not only will Kerrville

00:53:32 see today's annular eclipse,

00:53:34 they're also positioned to see

00:53:35 the total solar eclipse next year.

00:53:38 Right?

00:53:39 Like, how awesome is that?

00:53:41 And so, folks, let's take a look

00:53:43 at how the city has been preparing

00:53:44 in the lead up to these special events.

00:53:47 Kerrville is the eclipse capital of the state of Texas.

00:53:51 It is known as being the capital

00:53:53 of the Texas Hill Country.

00:53:55 It's the epitome of Texas.

00:53:58 - Ranches, deer, beautiful streams

00:54:00 like the Guadalupe here.

00:54:02 - Kerrville is very welcoming.

00:54:03 - It's a wonderful community.

00:54:05 - Tight-knit, small.

00:54:07 - It has about 25,000 people.

00:54:09 - Kerrville is blessed to be in that special square.

00:54:13 Not only are we going to witness

00:54:15 the annular eclipse in 2023,

00:54:18 we're also going to witness

00:54:19 the total solar eclipse in 2024.

00:54:22 - We're talking about crossroads, you know?

00:54:23 We get it twice.

00:54:25 - Two, two eclipses coming right here,

00:54:28 right where I stand.

00:54:28 It's statistically extraordinary.

00:54:31 - We get two in less than six months?

00:54:33 - Everybody's excited about it.

00:54:35 City council, county commissioners,

00:54:37 everybody's working diligently

00:54:38 to be able to provide safe opportunity

00:54:41 for the influx of people.

00:54:43 - This will be the biggest event

00:54:45 in the history of the city,

00:54:46 and that's why the city is preparing.

00:54:48 We're preparing to make the event enjoyable

00:54:51 for everybody who wants to see

00:54:53 this tremendous natural phenomenon.

00:54:55 - I think that Kerrville has done an awesome job

00:54:57 of preparing, you know, way in advance.

00:55:00 - It's getting that message out to people

00:55:02 to make sure that they're taken care of personally,

00:55:05 but then there's the science part of it,

00:55:07 letting them know what is an eclipse.

00:55:09 - I'm just having a great time going out

00:55:10 and talking to civic organizations and clubs

00:55:13 and talk about eclipses.

00:55:15 So this will be my fourth and fifth solar eclipses.

00:55:17 - I've seen total eclipse in Nebraska.

00:55:19 I drove 1,200 miles for a little over two minutes,

00:55:23 and it was well worth it.

00:55:25 And just couldn't believe the experience of the eclipse.

00:55:27 I mean, it's still just,

00:55:28 it literally gives me goosebumps

00:55:30 every time I talk about it.

00:55:31 It's a visceral, emotional experience

00:55:34 that is just, you have to experience it to understand.

00:55:38 - I thought I knew what it would be like,

00:55:41 but I gasped at the sheer wonder.

00:55:45 - It's gonna be a (gasps)

00:55:48 You're gonna hear that intake of air and awe.

00:55:50 - It was the most beautiful, natural thing I've ever seen.

00:55:53 So to have an eclipse basically in my backyard

00:55:56 is just, it's indescribable.

00:55:59 - As you can see, the town is alive,

00:56:07 preparing for these spectacular moments.

00:56:10 Now, Gina, the sun not only impacts us here on Earth, right?

00:56:14 - That's right, Tahira.

00:56:15 So the sun impacts our entire solar system.

00:56:18 And in fact, when we explore with NASA,

00:56:21 that's something that we have to take into consideration.

00:56:23 - So I'm glad you said exploring,

00:56:25 because I actually just recently learned

00:56:26 that the sun even impacts human exploration

00:56:29 in the solar system, which I thought was really cool.

00:56:32 So let's take a second and see how studying heliophysics

00:56:35 is actually helping us prepare for sending humans

00:56:38 to the moon and Mars under our Artemis program.

00:56:41 NASA has studied the sun and its influence

00:56:46 throughout our solar system for decades.

00:56:49 The Artemis program will provide a better understanding

00:56:52 of solar activity through two new missions.

00:56:55 HERMES is an instrument package

00:56:57 that will monitor space weather from the moon

00:57:00 and be placed on NASA's gateway,

00:57:02 an orbital outpost being built for lunar operations

00:57:05 and eventually Mars exploration.

00:57:08 The dual spacecraft ESCAPADE mission

00:57:11 will examine the effects of solar wind

00:57:13 on the red planet's atmosphere.

00:57:15 Heliophysicists at NASA are working to protect astronauts

00:57:19 who will travel to the moon and to Mars

00:57:21 by increasing our understanding of the space environment

00:57:24 through which they must travel.

00:57:26 With safety ever at the forefront,

00:57:28 the agency is using spacecraft observations

00:57:31 and simulations to better understand space weather.

00:57:35 That's a look at your Artemis Moon Minute.

00:57:37 Folks, I've learned that it is almost time

00:57:41 for Annularity to make its move into Albuquerque, New Mexico.

00:57:45 We've got Joy standing by at our other desk

00:57:48 who is gonna tell us about an upcoming NASA mission

00:57:51 and show us live views from this solar eclipse.

00:57:54 Joy, Michael, on a scale of one to 10,

00:57:58 how excited are you right now?

00:57:59 I think I'm about a 20 right now.

00:58:04 What about you, Michael?

00:58:05 Oh, I am so excited.

00:58:06 You can see the light changing.

00:58:07 It's getting a little bit chilly.

00:58:09 I am so excited.

00:58:11 I cannot wait.

00:58:12 Yeah.

00:58:13 So now we're joined with NASA scientist, Dr. Nicky Weil,

00:58:16 who's going to tell us about a new sun mission.

00:58:19 Firstly, Nicky, how are you feeling today?

00:58:21 It is so amazing to be here.

00:58:23 I'm so excited to be able to be a part of this festival

00:58:26 and witness the annular eclipse.

00:58:28 So Nicky, what is the PUNCH mission

00:58:31 and what does it stand for?

00:58:32 So PUNCH is a NASA small explorer.

00:58:35 It stands for Polarimeter to Unify the Corona

00:58:39 and Heliosphere.

00:58:41 So the corona is the outermost atmosphere of the sun.

00:58:44 It's the part of the sun that you get to see during a total

00:58:47 solar eclipse when the moon totally blocks out

00:58:49 the main body of the sun.

00:58:51 And then the heliosphere is the bubble carved out by the sun

00:58:56 as that corona turns into a solar wind

00:58:58 and fills our solar system.

00:59:01 So I know that PUNCH has a big outreach effort as well,

00:59:05 especially looking at humanity's interaction with the sun

00:59:08 and observing the sun.

00:59:09 Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

00:59:11 Yeah, humanity has been studying the sun and the moon

00:59:14 and those different cycles for millennia.

00:59:17 And one place where there's a lot of evidence

00:59:20 of that studying of the sun is over in Chaco Canyon

00:59:24 here in New Mexico.

00:59:26 And actually, our PUNCH outreach team,

00:59:28 some of our PUNCH outreach team is over there in Chaco

00:59:30 right now, where there's just so much evidence

00:59:32 of ancient and modern sun watching.

00:59:35 The ancient sun watching there, evidence

00:59:37 is on the rock of the sun, there's

00:59:40 this petroglyph of what we think might be the 1097 total solar

00:59:46 eclipse that actually went right over Chaco Canyon on a path

00:59:49 similar to the annular eclipse today.

00:59:52 And then, of course, the modern sun watching

00:59:55 is what we're all doing here today.

00:59:57 And of course, our Native American

00:59:58 partners on the PUNCH outreach effort

01:00:00 that still honor some of their traditional sun watching

01:00:03 efforts.

01:00:04 And then, of course, our NASA missions like PUNCH and Parker

01:00:06 Solar Probe.

01:00:08 That's amazing.

01:00:09 And you mentioned PUNCH shows and studies the sun's

01:00:12 atmosphere, the corona.

01:00:14 Why do we need to study the sun's atmosphere?

01:00:17 The corona is amazing because it is hundreds of times hotter

01:00:21 than the photosphere below it, the surface of the sun,

01:00:23 the part that we should never look directly at.

01:00:26 So that's amazing.

01:00:27 That's like if you walked away from a fireplace

01:00:29 and it got hundreds of times hotter.

01:00:31 Now, we know it has to do with the magnetic fields rooted down

01:00:35 in the sun, but we don't know exactly how that energy gets

01:00:38 into the corona.

01:00:39 So that's one of the things we're

01:00:41 really interested in studying.

01:00:44 Right.

01:00:44 So we're looking at a live shot on camera of this eclipse.

01:00:49 We're getting really close to annularity.

01:00:52 So what are you looking forward to as a scientist

01:00:56 when you think about eclipses and especially

01:00:59 with the new mission coming up?

01:01:00 PUNCH is going to be so amazing because it's

01:01:02 going to take images of the corona and that plasma

01:01:07 as it fills the solar system in regular white light.

01:01:11 We could see it with our eye if our eye were sensitive enough

01:01:14 and if the moon always blocked out the main body of the sun.

01:01:17 But it doesn't, and that's why we

01:01:19 need NASA missions like PUNCH to do that for us.

01:01:22 Fantastic.

01:01:23 I can't wait for the mission to launch.

01:01:25 Me neither.

01:01:25 I'm super excited about it.

01:01:27 So we're moments away, minutes away from the annular eclipse

01:01:31 here.

01:01:32 Nikki, thank you so much for joining us.

01:01:34 I hope you enjoy the annular eclipse.

01:01:36 Yeah, thank you so much.

01:01:37 This has been great.

01:01:38 And I hope you keep safe from the wind.

01:01:39 The wind has kind of picked up right now.

01:01:41 So yes, the skies are clear.

01:01:43 The wind has picked up.

01:01:44 But we have a clear view of the annular eclipse.

01:01:46 So remember, the annular eclipse is moments away from Albuquerque,

01:01:50 and the sun is never completely covered.

01:01:53 So during the eclipse, you have to keep your eclipse glasses

01:01:55 on the entire time.

01:01:57 You can also use other indirect viewing methods, too,

01:02:00 like a pinhole projector, if you don't have eclipse glasses.

01:02:03 So Michael, do you have your glasses ready?

01:02:04 I have mine ready.

01:02:06 Great.

01:02:06 So now let's go to a full screen view of the telescope

01:02:09 here in Albuquerque.

01:02:10 Wow.

01:02:15 We are minutes away, and you can see that the ring of fire

01:02:19 is almost here.

01:02:21 Yeah, the sun is just egressing over into the moon--

01:02:26 or the moon's egressing onto the sun.

01:02:29 We're getting closer and closer.

01:02:31 The light here on the ground is visibly different.

01:02:34 And looking up at the sky, we see a thumbnail moon.

01:02:38 It is-- or thumbnail sun.

01:02:40 It is gorgeous.

01:02:42 Wow.

01:02:44 The ring of fire, the almost ring of fire,

01:02:47 it looks so sharp and clear with our beautiful skies today.

01:02:51 Yeah, it really is almost that Johnny Cash moment.

01:02:54 We're getting close to the ring of fire.

01:02:57 And it is really beautiful to see happening in real time

01:03:01 as well.

01:03:02 This is one of those events where

01:03:03 I can sit and watch and see how the moon is progressing

01:03:08 and see that changing.

01:03:10 I can't believe that the moon--

01:03:12 we can actually see the moon moving in front of the sun

01:03:15 right now.

01:03:16 You can literally see it.

01:03:18 It's just incredible.

01:03:19 So as we approach annularity, you

01:03:21 might be able to see Bailey's Beads.

01:03:24 These are bright points of light of the sunlight coming

01:03:26 through the valleys on the moon itself right before the--

01:03:31 right before the annularity begins.

01:03:34 You can even hear the crowds in the background.

01:03:36 You can just feel the atmosphere building up.

01:03:39 Yeah, it is palpable.

01:03:41 Everybody is super excited here.

01:03:43 I know I am just thrilled.

01:03:46 We are just in the final countdown.

01:03:49 You can hear some people starting to cheer

01:03:50 and starting to get all pumped up themselves.

01:03:53 Wow, the ring of fire is almost here.

01:03:56 I'm just going to take my glasses off briefly.

01:03:58 And you can see the crowd.

01:04:00 Everyone is just staring safely at the sun right now.

01:04:03 It's just amazing that we're all united looking

01:04:06 at this amazing celestial event.

01:04:08 And make sure you take a look at the shadows around you.

01:04:10 You're going to see these crescent shadows everywhere

01:04:13 as different objects create natural pinhole projectors.

01:04:17 And so make sure that you do have a moment

01:04:20 to take a look at the world around you,

01:04:22 because there's beautiful rings.

01:04:25 So let's take a minute and just be quiet and enjoy the view.

01:04:28 [GASPS]

01:04:39 [APPLAUSE]

01:04:42 [APPLAUSE]

01:04:50 [GASPS]

01:04:51 [APPLAUSE]

01:04:54 Wow.

01:04:55 Wow.

01:04:56 We're in--

01:04:56 Oh my goodness.

01:04:57 --annularity.

01:04:58 It is a gorgeous sight to behold.

01:05:00 Everyone is cheering.

01:05:01 This is so amazing.

01:05:02 [GASPS]

01:05:03 [CHATTER]

01:05:05 Wow.

01:05:06 Yeah.

01:05:11 This is amazing.

01:05:13 You can hear people screaming in the background.

01:05:17 People are so excited.

01:05:19 And take off your eclipse glasses safely, of course.

01:05:22 And make sure you look at the shadows around you.

01:05:25 Look at how the environment has changed.

01:05:27 Just make note of this entire event.

01:05:29 [GASPS]

01:05:30 [CHATTER]

01:05:32 [GASPS]

01:05:33 [CHATTER]

01:05:34 Wow.

01:05:34 This is so amazing.

01:05:36 This really puts our planet in perspective

01:05:39 with the whole solar system, you know?

01:05:42 It's truly spectacular.

01:05:43 It's one of those natural phenomenon

01:05:45 that I just feel so lucky to be here at this place

01:05:48 at this time to be able to observe it.

01:05:50 Wow, I'm just looking at a tiny pinhole below.

01:05:59 And I see a little ring, like a little spotlight.

01:06:03 This is so cool.

01:06:05 You can see ringlets dotting everywhere around here.

01:06:09 See people taking pictures of the ground.

01:06:12 How are you feeling, Michael?

01:06:13 Oh, this is spectacular.

01:06:16 You know, we've been preparing for this event for so long.

01:06:20 To actually be in this moment and to be experiencing it live

01:06:25 is just tremendous.

01:06:27 Joy, how are you feeling?

01:06:29 I'm just in awe.

01:06:31 I can feel the temperature drop.

01:06:33 And this ring of fire actually feels so long.

01:06:37 It's just about four minutes long.

01:06:39 And it feels just incredible that we

01:06:41 are seeing the moon right in front of the sun right now.

01:06:45 So that moon's shadow is traversing across the ground

01:06:48 at a few thousand miles an hour, almost Mach 3.

01:06:52 So even though it seems like it's lingering,

01:06:54 it's actually making really good progress.

01:06:57 And pretty soon, our colleagues in Kerrville

01:07:00 will be seeing annularity too.

01:07:02 Wow, and the crowd, everyone is still staring,

01:07:09 looking at the annular eclipse.

01:07:11 I love that everyone is here together enjoying this

01:07:14 together.

01:07:15 Wow.

01:07:16 You can almost hear a little bit of an awe and reverence

01:07:18 among the crowd.

01:07:19 Initially, there was a bit of cheering.

01:07:21 And then everything got a little bit quieter

01:07:23 as people took in the sight.

01:07:24 I think that as people experience this event,

01:07:28 it strikes both personal but also communal.

01:07:31 And it's a really beautiful, beautiful event to see.

01:07:34 I would say we have about thousands of people

01:07:36 in the fiesta today and hundreds on their museum grounds.

01:07:40 Everyone is just excited about this eclipse.

01:07:43 And it's just so lovely to see.

01:07:46 I think also what I really love to do is to look at the crowd

01:07:49 and see everybody looking up at the sky with their glasses

01:07:53 on in the same place.

01:07:54 It's just fun to do a little bit of people watching as well.

01:07:58 [LAUGHS]

01:07:58 Yes.

01:08:01 Wow, this is a perfect ring of fire.

01:08:03 It's just so crisp.

01:08:05 Yeah, it's fantastic.

01:08:07 I'm so excited for the science that is going to be coming out

01:08:10 of this too.

01:08:10 Of course, I always come back to the science

01:08:13 and this opportunity to have the moon covered to this extent

01:08:18 is going to provide us really amazing data about how

01:08:21 the sun and moon and earth are interact--

01:08:24 how they interact with each other.

01:08:25 Oh my goodness.

01:08:27 We have about 30 seconds left of annularity here.

01:08:30 I just want to absorb this moment.

01:08:34 It's so fast and so slow.

01:08:37 Definitely.

01:08:38 [LAUGHS]

01:08:41 Wow, what a sight.

01:08:42 Sometimes you just have to take a moment to take it in.

01:09:00 Yes.

01:09:00 Oh my goodness.

01:09:03 Well, we have a few more seconds left

01:09:05 of annularity in Albuquerque.

01:09:07 Yeah, we're closing down on the last little bit.

01:09:10 Take a-- see if you can see a Bailey's bead possibly popping

01:09:13 up right as that edge of the moon

01:09:17 aligns with the edge of the sun.

01:09:19 Just seconds left.

01:09:26 Really such a gorgeous sight.

01:09:29 It really is.

01:09:31 Oh, that is going to be a moment to remember.

01:09:37 Absolutely.

01:09:39 So Kerbal is going to be experiencing

01:09:41 this very, very soon.

01:09:43 So let's head back to them in Kerbal, Texas

01:09:46 to see what they're up to.

01:09:50 Oh, I mean, Joy and Michael, I got goose bumps watching

01:09:54 you experience annularity.

01:09:56 And you know, that is about to be us soon.

01:09:58 It's true.

01:09:59 I mean, so Tahira, we're about 550 miles away from them.

01:10:03 And we will have annularity in about 10 minutes.

01:10:06 Because as Michael said, the moon's shadow

01:10:08 is traveling more than 1,000 miles an hour.

01:10:12 Everyone's so excited.

01:10:13 Yeah, as you can see, the crowd is just getting

01:10:16 excited for today's opportunity.

01:10:18 And folks, it's starting to get dimmer here.

01:10:21 Like, it is going to be amazing.

01:10:23 Yeah.

01:10:23 So Gina, other than sheer beauty,

01:10:26 why do we observe eclipses at NASA?

01:10:29 Well, NASA can learn a ton of different science

01:10:32 from the eclipses.

01:10:33 So let's talk about exoplanets for a second.

01:10:35 Because when we study exoplanets,

01:10:37 we are actually using eclipses.

01:10:40 The planet itself is passing in front of its host star.

01:10:43 And so we can learn about the exoplanets.

01:10:45 There are eclipses on other planets in our solar system

01:10:48 that we can study.

01:10:49 But here on Earth, the science that we're able to do

01:10:52 will inform us about the upper atmosphere

01:10:55 and how it responds to the sun.

01:10:56 So really understanding kind of that sun-Earth connection.

01:11:00 We can do lunar science as well.

01:11:01 And of course, solar science, learning more about the sun.

01:11:04 So eclipses are touching Earth science, planetary science,

01:11:07 sun science.

01:11:08 Everything.

01:11:08 It's incredible.

01:11:09 And NASA's studying it all.

01:11:10 Yes, exactly.

01:11:11 We take advantage of that, for sure.

01:11:13 Absolutely.

01:11:14 I mean, spectacular sight, spectacular science.

01:11:17 So folks, we have James standing by at our eclipse desk

01:11:21 with a telescope operator who's going to show us the next city

01:11:24 experiencing annularity.

01:11:26 James, how are things looking?

01:11:28 Yeah, hey, Tierra.

01:11:29 I just had a quick look outside.

01:11:30 It is really surreal here.

01:11:32 It's kind of hard to process exactly what we're seeing.

01:11:34 Because it's daytime, but it feels like it's not.

01:11:37 It's starting to get already very close to annularity.

01:11:39 You can hear a lot of screams behind me now.

01:11:41 Right now, we're actually getting the annularity

01:11:43 in Roswell, New Mexico.

01:11:45 They should have a phenomenal view outside right now.

01:11:48 And I'm actually joined by a telescope operator

01:11:50 who's been providing a phenomenal view for us

01:11:52 all morning with her telescope.

01:11:53 This is Kat Troesch.

01:11:54 Thank you so much for joining us today.

01:11:56 Thank you so much for having me.

01:11:57 This is so exciting.

01:11:58 Yeah, it's really mind-blowing seeing it.

01:12:00 And so you have quite the setup.

01:12:02 Could you walk us through exactly

01:12:03 what you have outside for us?

01:12:04 Sure.

01:12:05 So we have a Celestron 6SE.

01:12:07 It's a Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope

01:12:09 with a solar filter on the front and a DSLR camera

01:12:12 that's streaming to YouTube.

01:12:13 And so a Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope's

01:12:15 a bit of a unique telescope.

01:12:16 Usually, you think of kind of like a long cylindrical thing.

01:12:19 But this concentrates the image in a different way, right?

01:12:21 Right.

01:12:21 So it's a little bit more compact.

01:12:23 It's definitely designed for astrophotography in mind.

01:12:26 And how it works is there is a glass corrector

01:12:29 plate in the front.

01:12:30 It's clear glass.

01:12:31 And the light from anything that you're looking at,

01:12:33 whether it's planets or, in this case today, the sun,

01:12:36 will travel through the corrector plate

01:12:38 to the primary mirror that's at the back of the telescope.

01:12:40 Then that will bounce back into the secondary mirror that

01:12:43 is attached to the corrector plate on the front.

01:12:46 And then it'll go through again back

01:12:49 into the diagonal that's attached to the DSLR camera

01:12:52 or an eyepiece if you're looking at it.

01:12:54 So a pretty complex process.

01:12:55 And also, you have to have special protection

01:12:58 for the telescope itself because you're used to looking

01:13:00 at pretty dim objects.

01:13:01 What do you have set up for that?

01:13:02 So I have a white light solar filter.

01:13:05 And it is incredibly important, just like protecting your eyes,

01:13:08 you need to have solar equipment for your telescope

01:13:11 or your camera if you're photographing the sun.

01:13:13 Yeah, and so also, this is obviously moving really

01:13:15 quickly across our sky.

01:13:16 You just heard from Michael that this is really

01:13:18 quite a quick event here.

01:13:19 So how do you keep it in the field of view of the camera?

01:13:22 Well, thankfully, the remote control

01:13:23 that's part of the telescope actually

01:13:25 has a city database set up.

01:13:27 So I can program it for city and state.

01:13:29 And Kerrville was actually listed.

01:13:30 Look at that.

01:13:31 Very awesome.

01:13:32 And yes, so you can see it's already moving very quickly

01:13:34 towards us.

01:13:35 This is where annularity is going

01:13:36 to be currently taking place.

01:13:37 You can see we're next in line here,

01:13:39 coming up in just a little bit.

01:13:41 So very excited to continue tracking this across our skies.

01:13:44 Thank you so much for providing this awesome view for us

01:13:46 all morning.

01:13:47 You can really see it's really getting close now.

01:13:49 It's got this beautiful crescent to it.

01:13:51 Usually, we're used to a crescent moon.

01:13:52 We've got a crescent sun today.

01:13:54 I mean, really awesome.

01:13:55 And in just a few moments, we're going

01:13:56 to have the ring of fire of annularity.

01:13:59 Very excited to have that.

01:14:00 Thank you so much for joining us, Kat.

01:14:01 Thank you.

01:14:02 And back to you, Tahira.

01:14:05 Thanks, James and Kat.

01:14:06 Now, we have about 6-ish minutes, 6:30,

01:14:10 until annularity makes its way here to Kerrville, Texas.

01:14:15 As you can hear, the anticipation is high.

01:14:18 We're so excited.

01:14:20 And so, Gina, as we count down to the big moment,

01:14:23 let's take a few social questions.

01:14:24 Let's do it.

01:14:25 OK.

01:14:26 So we have something to see here on X, who asks,

01:14:30 am I seeing a couple of sunspots

01:14:32 on the telescope feed?

01:14:33 Yes.

01:14:34 So you are seeing some sunspots.

01:14:36 As I look at the live feed, maybe not so much right now,

01:14:39 because the moon is blocking most of the sun.

01:14:42 But when the moon wasn't covering as much of the sun,

01:14:45 you could see some darker spots and black spots here and there.

01:14:48 And those, in fact, are sunspots,

01:14:50 which are areas of really intense magnetic fields.

01:14:54 And the surface of the sun is actually cooler,

01:14:56 which is why they appear darker than the rest of the bright sun

01:14:59 that we see.

01:15:00 Now, we heard a little bit about space weather and some

01:15:03 of that solar activity that's coming towards Earth

01:15:05 during some of the sun's activity.

01:15:08 And basically, these sunspots are where

01:15:11 that activity can come from.

01:15:13 And right now, the sun is in the part of its solar cycle

01:15:17 where more of those sunspots start to appear.

01:15:19 So the sun goes through an 11-year cycle,

01:15:22 yeah, where it becomes active and then

01:15:25 where it becomes less active.

01:15:26 And right now, we're inching towards what

01:15:28 we call that solar maximum.

01:15:29 And so more and more of those sunspots appear.

01:15:31 And that's what we're seeing today.

01:15:33 That is incredible.

01:15:33 And I mean, again, talk about activity.

01:15:36 Gina, this crowd right now, like, folks, if you could see it--

01:15:39 I don't know if you-- exactly.

01:15:41 Yeah, there you go.

01:15:42 We have folks looking up already with the eclipse glasses on.

01:15:46 You see the live telescope feed on the screen right now.

01:15:49 We are moments away.

01:15:51 What I think is super cool, we've

01:15:53 even got some folks out here with their own telescopes

01:15:56 and cameras to really capture this spectacular event.

01:16:01 And so again, it looks like we've got about four minutes.

01:16:05 The crowd is growing.

01:16:06 And I'm interested to see how everything kind of calms down,

01:16:11 too.

01:16:11 So we'll see.

01:16:13 Gina, I have another question.

01:16:15 This is from Barron on YouTube, who

01:16:17 asks, does a solar eclipse have a material

01:16:21 impact on the atmosphere?

01:16:22 Oh, I love this question.

01:16:24 Because with the eclipse, we really

01:16:26 are trying to understand the sun-Earth connection.

01:16:29 And so you can almost think of the eclipse

01:16:31 as a controlled experiment.

01:16:33 Basically, the fact that we often

01:16:36 experience changes in our atmosphere during the nighttime,

01:16:40 but the eclipse is almost able to turn off and on the sun.

01:16:44 So really--

01:16:44 And even right now, we were blasted with the sun earlier.

01:16:49 And now it's just like it's darker.

01:16:51 And so it's the upper atmosphere that we're really

01:16:54 interested in understanding.

01:16:55 And the energy and the radiation from the sun

01:16:58 creates what we call the ionosphere,

01:17:00 this upper part of the atmosphere that's

01:17:02 filled with charged particles.

01:17:04 And so when the sun's radiation is not hitting the atmosphere,

01:17:07 that ionosphere, it changes in its density, its temperature.

01:17:12 And we're really trying to understand those changes.

01:17:14 And the eclipse gives us that opportunity

01:17:16 to really turn the sun on and off, which we can't do--

01:17:19 It's like a little experiment.

01:17:21 Yeah.

01:17:21 Honestly, all of us also get to be a part of it.

01:17:24 Right?

01:17:24 That's really cool.

01:17:25 It is.

01:17:25 Thanks, Gina.

01:17:26 So our next question is from Hunter on YouTube, who asks,

01:17:30 does the solar eclipse affect the moon

01:17:33 when it happens at night?

01:17:34 OK, great question, Hunter.

01:17:36 So today, as we're experiencing a solar eclipse,

01:17:40 that means that the moon is between the sun and the Earth.

01:17:44 Now, the lunar eclipse, the lunar eclipse

01:17:47 that can take place, is when the moon is actually

01:17:50 on the other side of the Earth.

01:17:52 And so today, we're experiencing that solar eclipse.

01:17:55 And we see that the moon is very dark.

01:17:58 Is that-- and it looks like, too, we're getting a live feed.

01:18:00 Looking at that feed.

01:18:01 All of another annularity taking place right now.

01:18:06 Odessa, Texas.

01:18:07 Wow.

01:18:09 Oh, there we go.

01:18:10 It's cool to see this comparison right now.

01:18:12 What is that?

01:18:13 What's on the side of the screen?

01:18:15 We might have some solar activity.

01:18:17 Is that a Bailey's bead?

01:18:19 Yep.

01:18:20 Or solar activity?

01:18:22 Wow.

01:18:23 Wow.

01:18:24 That's incredible.

01:18:27 It is leaving Odessa right now and heading towards Pasadena.

01:18:33 Oh my goodness.

01:18:33 In the other live feed that we just

01:18:35 have that teeny, tiny sliver of the sun left peeking out.

01:18:38 Wow.

01:18:39 We've got about two minutes here, folks.

01:18:41 As you can hear, the crowd is chanting and counting down

01:18:46 until our moment right now.

01:18:49 That is beautiful.

01:18:50 It's coming in so quickly, too.

01:18:52 And you can wear--

01:18:53 I'm going to grab those glasses so that I have them.

01:18:56 OK, wow.

01:18:57 So before we hit our moment and peak in annularity, folks,

01:19:03 it's a good time to give a reminder that it is never

01:19:06 safe to look directly at the eclipse

01:19:09 without proper eye protection when

01:19:11 watching even a partial or annular solar eclipse directly

01:19:15 with your eyes.

01:19:16 You must look through safe solar viewing glasses or a handheld

01:19:21 viewer at all times.

01:19:23 Do not look at the sun through a camera lens, telescope,

01:19:26 binoculars, or any other optical device

01:19:29 while wearing eclipse glasses.

01:19:31 One more minute, folks.

01:19:33 If you don't have eclipse glasses,

01:19:35 you can use an indirect viewing method

01:19:37 like a pinhole projector, which has a small opening,

01:19:40 and will project the image of the sun onto a nearby surface.

01:19:44 You just heard it.

01:19:45 We are under a minute away from the annular eclipse

01:19:48 making its way across our area into Kerrville, Texas.

01:19:53 It feels like it's gotten here so quickly.

01:19:54 We've been counting down.

01:19:55 I know.

01:19:56 And now we're less than a minute.

01:19:57 It is beautiful.

01:19:58 And so, again, you're witnessing firsthand the moon passing

01:20:02 between our star and the Earth.

01:20:04 And we're taking this full screen right now.

01:20:07 Gina, let's take this opportunity

01:20:10 and get a closer look.

01:20:11 All right.

01:20:12 Oh my gosh.

01:20:13 This is the first time.

01:20:14 And looking around, I mean, everything is so dim.

01:20:16 10, 9, 4, 3, 2, 1.

01:20:21 Oh, wow.

01:20:22 Oh my god.

01:20:24 Wow, you know, like, why am I emotional right now?

01:20:27 Oh, there we go.

01:20:28 [CHEERING]

01:20:31 Ah-ha!

01:20:40 Oh my god.

01:20:42 I mean, it doesn't look real.

01:20:44 I didn't think I would cry.

01:20:46 Like, what the hell is going on?

01:20:49 Wow.

01:20:51 This is--

01:20:52 Wow.

01:20:53 It looks great.

01:20:54 I mean, you can just see.

01:20:56 It looks like a perfect circle of the sun peeking out.

01:21:00 It really is that ring of fire that we have here.

01:21:04 Wow.

01:21:05 Gina, I thought I'd have goosebumps,

01:21:07 but I'm literally shaking.

01:21:09 This is crazy.

01:21:09 I know.

01:21:11 I know.

01:21:11 I agree.

01:21:13 So I mean, this is your first annular eclipse.

01:21:16 I mean, was it what you expected?

01:21:19 It is to here.

01:21:20 I mean, we've seen all of the photos

01:21:22 from previous annular eclipses.

01:21:24 But just as I look again, I mean,

01:21:26 it's incredible how the moon and the sun

01:21:29 are able to line up like this.

01:21:32 And again, I mean, the moon is way smaller than the sun.

01:21:37 But right now, it's really giving it a run for its money.

01:21:41 Why is that?

01:21:42 Well, so a little fun fact about our moon.

01:21:45 It's pretty incredible.

01:21:46 It's 400 times smaller than the sun,

01:21:49 but it's also 400 times closer to the Earth.

01:21:52 No way.

01:21:53 400 and 400.

01:21:54 Magic number here, yeah.

01:21:55 The fact that that 400 and 400, that means in the sky,

01:21:59 the moon and the sun appear to be the same size.

01:22:02 And that is unique to us on Earth.

01:22:04 No other planet in our solar system

01:22:07 has that ratio that makes it so special.

01:22:10 So you're saying that if we viewed

01:22:12 an eclipse from another planet, it wouldn't look like this?

01:22:16 It wouldn't.

01:22:16 I mean, I'm sure it would be great to see,

01:22:19 but it would not look as spectacular as this.

01:22:21 Wow, OK.

01:22:22 I'm going to turn behind me really fast, looking around.

01:22:25 And you can just see everything.

01:22:27 The shadows are a little bit different.

01:22:29 It's dim.

01:22:30 You get this hazy feeling, but the sky is still blue.

01:22:34 That's what's strange about it.

01:22:35 Oh, it's so sweet.

01:22:36 We've got parents holding little eclipse glasses

01:22:40 and their kids to look up.

01:22:41 This is just-- it's really amazing how just,

01:22:45 like, I don't know, a natural phenomenon can make the world

01:22:48 pause for a second.

01:22:50 Wow.

01:22:52 You heard the cheering, and now it's quiet again

01:22:55 as people are just looking.

01:22:58 And so for us, this is going to last about four minutes

01:23:03 until it crosses, right?

01:23:05 That's right.

01:23:05 And why is that?

01:23:07 Is that the same in every city or--

01:23:09 Yeah, so there's actually-- the length of the maximum eclipse

01:23:13 can change based on several factors.

01:23:15 I mean, each eclipse is unique.

01:23:17 And so one thing has to do with where in the moon's orbit

01:23:21 the moon is, because the moon's orbit isn't circular.

01:23:24 So it will go faster and slower at different parts.

01:23:26 And that will make the shadow travel at different speeds.

01:23:29 Also, where the shadow is landing on Earth

01:23:32 will have an impact, because if you're at the equator,

01:23:35 you're going to be rotating much faster than if you

01:23:38 were at the poles.

01:23:38 And so for that fact, it changes the length

01:23:41 of that maximum eclipse, too.

01:23:43 And that's true not just for annular eclipses,

01:23:45 but for the partial eclipses, for the totality,

01:23:49 for total solar eclipses as well.

01:23:52 And I imagine our folks at home getting

01:23:54 some of those partial eclipses are also having

01:23:57 a great experience, too.

01:23:59 Wow.

01:24:02 I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't this.

01:24:04 Like, this is incredible.

01:24:06 And so Gina, I'm sure, I mean, you're

01:24:15 in heliophysics, sun science.

01:24:16 I'm sure some of your teams are studying today's eclipse.

01:24:19 Oh, yeah.

01:24:20 Absolutely.

01:24:21 What kind of science can only happen right now, you know?

01:24:24 Right.

01:24:25 We've heard about the sounding rockets that are experimenting.

01:24:28 That's right.

01:24:29 With someone studying the upper atmosphere.

01:24:31 And so we're really interested in knowing, like, right now,

01:24:34 in our location, as that radiation from the sun

01:24:37 is being blocked, how does the upper atmosphere change?

01:24:40 And so in addition to that, I mean,

01:24:43 we really want to understand how those sunspots--

01:24:47 what's going on when they're covered versus when

01:24:49 they are not covered.

01:24:51 We can tell the difference in that radiation

01:24:53 that's coming from the sun.

01:24:55 And so there's so much science that we can do.

01:24:57 And this is just--

01:24:58 folks, this view is just so incredible.

01:25:01 Before we fully pass through this transit,

01:25:05 let's check in with James at our eclipse desk.

01:25:07 James, I know you are seeing this.

01:25:10 What do you think?

01:25:10 It's truly a surreal moment.

01:25:17 It feels like almost nighttime.

01:25:19 It's been really breezy, chilly.

01:25:21 It was so awesome.

01:25:22 The shadows are all like little rings as well.

01:25:24 It's just a beautiful sight.

01:25:25 Kind of hard to put into words the exact feeling.

01:25:28 I mean, we've been preparing for this for a while.

01:25:30 We've been tracking this all morning

01:25:32 with our Eclipse Explorer.

01:25:33 But actually to see it in person and to take it in,

01:25:36 it's a really incredible moment.

01:25:38 And this only lasted about four minutes,

01:25:40 you can see on our Eclipse Explorer.

01:25:41 This is already passing off of Kerrville,

01:25:44 heading further southeast to parts of the Texas

01:25:46 coast on the Gulf.

01:25:48 And the morning is far from over here.

01:25:50 For a lot of folks in Central America and South America,

01:25:53 their morning is just starting off here.

01:25:54 The partial eclipse is affecting still

01:25:57 a large part of the region.

01:25:58 You can see this whole area that's highlighted here

01:26:00 in the larger ellipse here.

01:26:02 That's all being affected still by that partial eclipse.

01:26:05 And you can see on our track that this

01:26:07 is going to continue moving, moving further southeast

01:26:10 all the way into parts of South America

01:26:12 before the morning's over.

01:26:13 It's been just incredible tracking this.

01:26:15 And actually, Kerrville, we're in the path of the total solar

01:26:19 eclipse for next year.

01:26:20 So if I turn on the path for next year,

01:26:21 you can see X marks the spot here in Kerrville.

01:26:24 We're going to be coming right back here to witness

01:26:27 this incredible cosmic event, once again,

01:26:30 getting that incredible view.

01:26:31 Just really, again, very hard to put into words

01:26:34 just how amazing this is.

01:26:36 Just a stunning experience.

01:26:38 And it's been an honor to be here with you this morning,

01:26:41 tracking this event as it's moved across.

01:26:43 We started the morning in Eugene, Oregon.

01:26:45 Now it has arrived and already passed us in Kerrville.

01:26:47 I'll continue to track it for a little bit longer here.

01:26:50 But for now, back to you, Tahira.

01:26:52 Thank you, James.

01:26:53 And folks, this is just the beginning.

01:26:55 Today's event kickstarts NASA's Heliophysics Big Year,

01:26:59 which is a year where we're encouraging people

01:27:01 to do as many sun-related activities as possible

01:27:04 in the lead up to next year's total solar eclipse.

01:27:07 Now Joy and Michael in Albuquerque

01:27:09 are going to share some of the ways you can play a part.

01:27:12 Joy, what can we look forward to?

01:27:13 Now that the annual eclipse is here, the fun has just begun.

01:27:20 So today is the official launch of NASA's Heliophysics Big

01:27:23 Year.

01:27:24 This is a year-long celebration of solar science.

01:27:26 And it's modeled after the Big Year concept

01:27:28 from citizen scientists in their bird watching community.

01:27:31 So they're challenged to see as many birds as they can.

01:27:34 But in the Heliophysics Big Year,

01:27:36 we're challenging you to do as many sun science-related

01:27:38 activities as possible.

01:27:40 And so one way to participate is through NASA's citizen science

01:27:44 projects.

01:27:44 Here are a few sun-related ones you could join.

01:27:49 Did you know that you can participate in solar eclipse

01:27:52 science with NASA?

01:27:54 NASA's citizen science projects are collaborations

01:27:56 between scientists and members of the public,

01:27:59 no matter your citizenship.

01:28:01 Several volunteer science projects

01:28:02 are gearing up for the 2024 total solar eclipse

01:28:05 that you can join.

01:28:09 Total solar eclipses don't just look cool.

01:28:11 They provide a rare chance to see the sun's

01:28:13 faint outer atmosphere.

01:28:16 Using telescopes and cameras that

01:28:18 are safe for viewing the sun, volunteer scientists

01:28:20 across North America will capture images

01:28:23 of the total solar eclipse.

01:28:24 Scientists will study these images in detail,

01:28:27 tracking how plumes of solar material

01:28:29 move through the sun's atmosphere.

01:28:31 But be careful.

01:28:32 Without proper tools and techniques,

01:28:34 you can damage your eyes and your camera.

01:28:36 Did you know you can listen to an eclipse too?

01:28:39 Amateur or ham radio operators will send radio messages

01:28:43 to one another during the eclipse

01:28:44 to see how changes in the upper atmosphere

01:28:46 distort radio signals.

01:28:49 As the moon blocks one portion of the sun,

01:28:52 it can make other portions easier to see.

01:28:54 Working with local scientists at an observatory

01:28:57 in Southern California, participants

01:28:59 will observe magnetic hot spots on the sun

01:29:01 as the moon passes over them, revealing details

01:29:04 they normally can't detect.

01:29:06 Want to learn more?

01:29:08 Follow DoNASA Science on X and Facebook

01:29:10 to see how you can get involved in NASA citizen science.

01:29:13 So as you can see in the telescope view,

01:29:21 the moon is now moving away from the sun, which

01:29:24 is really, really amazing that we're still

01:29:27 seeing this partial eclipse.

01:29:28 Absolutely.

01:29:28 I think I can see a sunspot in there too.

01:29:31 And I think on one of the earlier shots,

01:29:33 I could see a prominence.

01:29:34 So we're seeing NASA's sun science happening in real time.

01:29:38 So we're getting some amazing questions online.

01:29:40 Shall we ask some more?

01:29:41 Yeah, let's get into it.

01:29:42 Let's answer some more.

01:29:43 OK, so we have a question from Peter Chang on X.

01:29:47 And they ask, can a filtered telescope

01:29:49 see flares on the sun during totality?

01:29:51 Oh, that's a really good question.

01:29:53 The answer is yes.

01:29:54 It depends on what filter, though.

01:29:56 So if you use just a white light filter,

01:29:58 then you have to have an exceptionally large flare

01:30:01 in order to be able to see it.

01:30:03 If you use a filter like an H-alpha filter that

01:30:06 specifically selects one color of red light,

01:30:10 then you're going to be able to see flares a little bit more

01:30:13 frequently, even during totality as the corona

01:30:20 adjusts to that flare as it erupts.

01:30:23 OK, so we have time for one more question.

01:30:26 Yerion X asks, if a solar system had more than one star,

01:30:31 would they have more solar eclipses?

01:30:33 Would they all look like the same eclipses

01:30:35 that we have here on Earth?

01:30:37 Ooh, that is getting a little sci-fi, but that's OK.

01:30:40 So if we had more than one sun, you'd

01:30:42 have to have a moon to block both suns, or maybe two moons

01:30:45 to block both suns.

01:30:46 So you'd have to have a very complex geometry

01:30:49 to get everything lined up perfectly

01:30:51 so you could get solar eclipses with two suns and two moons.

01:30:54 And oh, it would get very complicated.

01:30:57 Thank you so much, Michael.

01:30:58 You're welcome.

01:30:59 OK, so now we're joined with NASA's heliophysics lead,

01:31:04 Denise Hill, who's going to tell us more about how you can

01:31:06 participate in the heliophysics big year.

01:31:09 Hi, Denise.

01:31:09 How are you today?

01:31:11 Great.

01:31:12 Did you see that?

01:31:14 That was my first annual eclipse,

01:31:16 and we got a prominence.

01:31:17 I am so stoked.

01:31:19 That was the dopest thing ever.

01:31:20 OK.

01:31:22 Heliophysics big year.

01:31:24 So as you've heard before, the sun touches everything.

01:31:28 And the heliophysics big year is a celebration,

01:31:30 a global celebration, of sun and sun science

01:31:33 and what we have going on.

01:31:34 But it's also-- I think I heard you say it, Michael.

01:31:36 It's about the community and being communal, and just

01:31:39 the unity of hearing everybody cheer.

01:31:42 The sun touches us all in so many different ways.

01:31:45 And so the heliophysics big year is

01:31:47 going to help us kind of discover

01:31:49 all the ways the sun touches us, scientifically,

01:31:52 but in other ways as well.

01:31:54 And why is it a big year for the sun?

01:31:57 So you saw what just happened, right?

01:32:01 Well, that's nothing.

01:32:03 Coming up in April 8, we have the total solar eclipse,

01:32:07 and then Parker Solar Probe's closest approach,

01:32:11 which will end out the heliophysics big year.

01:32:13 But it's the mission that has literally touched the sun,

01:32:15 and it's going to be making its closest approach.

01:32:18 And then from there, every single month

01:32:20 during the heliophysics big year-- and it's a big year

01:32:23 because it's more than 12 months.

01:32:25 But during that time, we have themes on different ways

01:32:30 people can explore the sun and how it touches them.

01:32:32 So we have things like fashion.

01:32:34 We're going to be delving into physical and mental

01:32:37 and emotional health.

01:32:38 The sun touches us in so many ways besides.

01:32:40 And then we have missions.

01:32:41 In just a couple weeks, we have our awe mission

01:32:44 that is launching, and it's going to be the first space

01:32:47 weather station on ISS.

01:32:49 And we are so excited.

01:32:51 You have no idea.

01:32:52 Wow, there's so many new NASA events and opportunities

01:32:57 coming up.

01:32:57 Is there any other science events

01:32:59 that maybe people could get involved with themselves?

01:33:02 Yeah, for sure.

01:33:03 So we've talked about citizen science a bunch,

01:33:05 and that is one of the ways for sure for people to get involved

01:33:09 and to do NASA science with real scientists.

01:33:12 And then there's also-- you are a scientist.

01:33:14 Every single one of us is a scientist.

01:33:16 And we're going to share ways that you can explore the sun,

01:33:19 do your own little scientific investigations yourself.

01:33:23 And so yeah, the science is going to be front and center.

01:33:27 There's also going to be some other things as well.

01:33:29 That's great.

01:33:30 So what are you most excited about in this upcoming big year?

01:33:33 For me, it's the unity.

01:33:35 Like the sun touches-- it doesn't matter what race you

01:33:37 are, what ethnicity, what culture, religion,

01:33:41 whether you live in a rural community, urban community.

01:33:44 It doesn't matter.

01:33:45 The sun touches us all.

01:33:47 And we like to call it our extraordinarily ordinary sun

01:33:51 because our sun is supposed to just be ordinary.

01:33:55 But it is responsible and touches

01:33:57 every living thing on Earth.

01:33:59 And no other star that we know of

01:34:02 has that level of responsibility.

01:34:04 So that gives me hope that you can be ordinary

01:34:08 and have an extraordinary impact.

01:34:10 That's amazing.

01:34:12 Well, I think our sun's pretty extraordinary by itself.

01:34:14 So I don't know.

01:34:16 Thank you so much for joining us, Denise.

01:34:18 Thanks for having me.

01:34:19 So if you want to learn more about the Heliophysics Big

01:34:22 Year, you can visit go.nasa.gov/heliobigyear.

01:34:26 Michael, are you excited for the Heliophysics Big Year?

01:34:29 I am so excited because I get to be

01:34:30 a rock star for an entire year.

01:34:32 And then I go back to being a normal scientist again.

01:34:35 No, it's going to be fantastic for science,

01:34:38 for outreach, for everything.

01:34:40 I am so excited for this.

01:34:41 Well, the Heliophysics Big Year has so many opportunities

01:34:45 for folks around the world to get involved with NASA science,

01:34:47 especially during the 2024 total solar eclipse.

01:34:51 And one group of citizen scientists

01:34:52 will be using their senses to make observations.

01:34:55 They'll gather sound recordings and help with data analysis

01:34:59 to understand how wildlife will be impacted by solar eclipses.

01:35:02 And you can help them too, no matter your citizenship.

01:35:05 So now let's learn more.

01:35:09 During a total solar eclipse, it is almost like day

01:35:13 becomes night very quickly.

01:35:15 So knowing that there's going to be

01:35:17 a change in that light and life-giving energy

01:35:20 means that we can predict when animals are going to have

01:35:23 a rapid shift in their behavior.

01:35:25 Which results in changes in the acoustic environment

01:35:28 or the soundscape.

01:35:30 So the Eclipse Soundscapes Project

01:35:32 is a project to determine how eclipses affect life here

01:35:35 on Earth.

01:35:36 And there's a lot more to observation

01:35:38 than just what you see.

01:35:40 It's also important to think about what you hear.

01:35:43 We're measuring how the rapid onset of darkness

01:35:46 during an eclipse affects wildlife

01:35:48 by measuring the changes in sounds that they make.

01:35:50 The general public is best suited for this type of project

01:35:54 because the general public is everywhere.

01:35:57 And that's really the power of the participatory science

01:35:59 component of this project.

01:36:01 It enables recordings and observations

01:36:03 of soundscapes across the diversity of ecosystems

01:36:06 covered by the path of totality.

01:36:08 We might think of some ecosystems

01:36:10 having a greater influence of human activities

01:36:12 on the soundscape.

01:36:13 Whereas in other ecosystems, say a remote part

01:36:15 of a national park, you might have a lower influence

01:36:18 of human activities and greater influence from the sounds

01:36:21 of life and Earth.

01:36:22 The only way to properly preserve a species

01:36:32 is to understand it.

01:36:34 The only way to understand it is through scientific study

01:36:37 on their behavior, their patterns,

01:36:40 and their habitat requirements.

01:36:42 One of the things we'll be doing during the total solar eclipse

01:36:45 is setting up these recording stations.

01:36:48 So these are our acoustic monitoring stations.

01:36:51 And what we're doing is listening

01:36:53 for calls of the different bat species

01:36:56 with the hopes of maybe picking up

01:36:58 some of those endangered species,

01:36:59 like the northern long-eared bat.

01:37:02 We're hoping the results of this study

01:37:03 will inform us about the health of our bat populations

01:37:07 across Springs National Park

01:37:09 and help improve future conservation efforts.

01:37:11 The Eclipse Soundscapes Project

01:37:14 is an inclusive and accessible project

01:37:17 that is inviting the general public

01:37:20 to get involved in NASA science

01:37:22 alongside scientists and subject matter experts.

01:37:26 Wherever you take your observations,

01:37:28 you might be giving us information

01:37:30 that has never been recorded before.

01:37:32 And that is really useful and interesting to a scientist.

01:37:35 - Wow, that sounds like an exciting project

01:37:39 that anyone can get involved with.

01:37:41 So if you want to learn more about Eclipse Soundscapes

01:37:43 or any of NASA's other citizen science opportunities,

01:37:47 go to go.nasa.gov/heliobigyear.

01:37:51 Well, thank you to everyone joining us online

01:37:53 and here in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

01:37:55 It's been an unforgettable day, hasn't it, Michael?

01:37:57 - Oh, it certainly has.

01:37:58 I will never forget this day.

01:38:00 It has been just a day full of activity

01:38:03 and memories that will last a lifetime.

01:38:05 - So although the annual eclipse is over in Albuquerque,

01:38:08 we still have one more day left at the Balloon Fiesta

01:38:10 and one year to participate

01:38:12 in as many sun science-related activities as possible

01:38:15 in the Heliophysics Big Year.

01:38:17 So now let's head back to Kerbal, Texas,

01:38:19 where Tahira and Gina will chat

01:38:20 about the upcoming total solar eclipse.

01:38:23 Thank you so much for joining us, everyone.

01:38:25 - Thanks, everyone.

01:38:26 - And thank you, Joy and Michael.

01:38:28 I mean, it sounds like we have so much to look forward to

01:38:31 over this next year.

01:38:32 And folks, even though peak annularity

01:38:35 just passed in Kerbal, Texas,

01:38:37 we are still getting an incredible view

01:38:39 on this live telescope feed.

01:38:41 You can see the moon is now passing over the sun

01:38:45 and honestly on its way to make another city's day.

01:38:49 Now, it is a good point to remind folks

01:38:51 that X marks the spot here in Kerbal, Texas.

01:38:55 For the 2024 total solar eclipse

01:38:57 will pass in just six months.

01:39:00 This very lucky city is in the path of totality

01:39:04 and will be one of the places to witness the moon

01:39:06 completely blocking out the face of the sun

01:39:09 and darkening the sky as if it were dawn or dusk.

01:39:12 Now, Gina and I are here with NASA Chief Scientist,

01:39:16 Dr. Kate Calvin,

01:39:17 to learn more about what we can expect for next year.

01:39:20 Kate, thank you so much for being here with us.

01:39:22 - Thank you, Joy.

01:39:23 - Thanks for having me. - Great to have you.

01:39:25 - And so, Kate, can you start off

01:39:27 and just give us an idea of what science we can expect

01:39:30 only for a total solar eclipse?

01:39:32 - So one of the things that scientists

01:39:34 are really interested in studying is called the corona.

01:39:36 It's a part of the sun's atmosphere.

01:39:38 It's the source of heat and particles

01:39:39 that come towards Earth.

01:39:41 But normally it's too bright

01:39:42 and so you can't really observe it directly.

01:39:45 Scientists use instruments called chronographs

01:39:47 to block some of that light,

01:39:48 but it's still hard to see parts of the corona.

01:39:50 - It's not the same as a total eclipse?

01:39:51 - Yeah, the total eclipse is a total eclipse

01:39:53 and the total eclipse gives the best environment

01:39:55 for studying the corona.

01:39:56 - Right, but we were so lucky to just see

01:39:58 that prominence coming off of the sun.

01:40:00 And what is the prominence?

01:40:02 And so that's actually some of that solar particle,

01:40:05 some of the particles coming off of the sun, the ejecta,

01:40:08 and we can kind of see it hanging there,

01:40:10 which either turns into an eruption,

01:40:12 some of that activity that we can observe,

01:40:14 or it can kind of just quiet down as well.

01:40:16 So, Kate, can you tell us, you know,

01:40:19 how can the public get involved

01:40:21 with a total solar eclipse?

01:40:22 - Oh, that's a good question.

01:40:24 - Yeah, so we have a number of citizen science projects.

01:40:26 These are projects where people anywhere around the world

01:40:28 can help contribute to our science.

01:40:30 You don't have to be in the path of totality to contribute.

01:40:32 We have projects for everyone.

01:40:34 And there's different projects.

01:40:35 Some of them you need cameras or telescopes or equipment.

01:40:39 Others you can use just with your cell phone.

01:40:41 And so we have one project

01:40:43 that's called on the Globe Observer app.

01:40:45 It's to help understand the effect of eclipses

01:40:48 on Earth's weather, and you can do that just with your phone.

01:40:50 - Do you need a science background or?

01:40:52 - Anyone can contribute.

01:40:54 We walk you through what you need to do,

01:40:55 and sometimes it's as simple as taking a picture

01:40:57 or recording a sound.

01:40:58 And so you can all contribute to our science.

01:41:00 - So anybody can get involved.

01:41:02 - Anyone can get involved.

01:41:03 - Perfect.

01:41:04 And then can you tell us a little more

01:41:05 how the eclipse science that we're doing

01:41:08 will help to inform kind of the broader science at NASA?

01:41:11 - Yeah, and so like I said,

01:41:12 we're trying to study the corona,

01:41:13 the source of heat and particles towards Earth.

01:41:15 They affect Earth.

01:41:16 They can disrupt electronics.

01:41:18 They can lead to northern lights.

01:41:19 So really interested in that in Earth

01:41:21 and understanding the effects on Earth.

01:41:23 But there's also the sun affects other planets

01:41:25 and bodies in the solar system, like the moon and Mars.

01:41:28 And so when we think about exploring the solar system,

01:41:30 we want to understand the sun and its role in it.

01:41:33 - Wow, that's incredible.

01:41:34 I mean, we have so much to look forward to next year.

01:41:37 I want to know real quick,

01:41:39 what are like, what's your peak excitement

01:41:41 for next year's total solar eclipse?

01:41:43 Gina, we'll start with you,

01:41:44 and then Kate would love to hear your thoughts.

01:41:46 - Sure, so I'm really excited to compare

01:41:49 what we saw today, that annular eclipse.

01:41:52 How does it compare to that total solar eclipse?

01:41:54 You know, I got to see a total in 2017,

01:41:56 but every eclipse is unique.

01:41:59 And so-- - Such a scientist.

01:42:00 - I know. - You wanna dial it up.

01:42:01 - That is my experiment.

01:42:02 How many data points can I get?

01:42:05 But not just that, you know,

01:42:06 we're hearing everything about the heliophysics big year.

01:42:08 And so it kicks off today,

01:42:10 and that total solar eclipse in April will be the next event.

01:42:12 So how many events can I participate in

01:42:15 for the heliophysics big year?

01:42:16 - Amazing.

01:42:17 What about you, Kate?

01:42:18 - I'm interested in sort of the things

01:42:19 beyond just what you see, but what you feel,

01:42:22 so that it's gonna get cooler,

01:42:23 and we might hear some animals.

01:42:24 - Even today, we felt that.

01:42:25 - Yeah, and I really wanna-- - And so--

01:42:26 - The full body experience of the eclipse.

01:42:29 - That is incredible. - So good.

01:42:30 - And I mean, today has been a spectacular day.

01:42:33 So folks, let's check in one last time

01:42:36 with James at our eclipse desk to see how he's doing.

01:42:39 James, what's it like?

01:42:41 - Yeah, Tahira, I'm still in awe of the moment

01:42:43 that we just had here a couple minutes ago

01:42:45 here in Kerbal, Texas.

01:42:46 Just a stunning view of that ring of fire here.

01:42:48 And as you can see on our eclipse explorer,

01:42:50 the annularity has now shifted off

01:42:52 into the Gulf of Mexico.

01:42:53 So if you're in a boat out there,

01:42:54 you'll have a phenomenal view.

01:42:56 But we're gonna be here once again next year,

01:42:58 April 8th, 2024 in Kerbal, Texas.

01:43:00 I've got the path of the 2024 total solar eclipse

01:43:03 up here on the screen.

01:43:04 You can see it's tracking right through us in Kerbal,

01:43:06 and then affecting an entirely new area here

01:43:09 that is gonna be stretching all the way up

01:43:11 to parts of New England, all the way up to Maine,

01:43:14 even parts of Canada.

01:43:15 So a really large area there as well.

01:43:17 So definitely save those pinhole projectors

01:43:20 and certainly keep a hold of those eclipse glasses.

01:43:23 You're gonna need them for next year.

01:43:24 We're gonna be right back to cover

01:43:25 all of that incredible stuff next year with you.

01:43:28 It's been amazing tracking this today.

01:43:29 And again, this is still moving onwards

01:43:32 to Central America and South America.

01:43:33 So if you're tuning in from there,

01:43:35 you have a great view incoming.

01:43:36 And in many parts of the country,

01:43:37 there's still that partial eclipse.

01:43:39 A truly awe-inspiring morning and a wonderful day for all.

01:43:43 So thank you so much.

01:43:44 Back to you, Zahira.

01:43:46 - And thank you so much, James,

01:43:47 for bringing us into the action during today's show.

01:43:50 Gina, so wow.

01:43:53 I mean, this was both of our first experiences.

01:43:56 So final thoughts.

01:43:58 - I mean, what a day.

01:44:00 At this point, I'm ready to look at those calculations

01:44:03 for the eclipses and check out not only April,

01:44:05 but what else can I see in the future?

01:44:07 Because these are spectacular.

01:44:09 - A little eclipse chaser now.

01:44:11 - Exactly, I'll chase it around the world.

01:44:13 - No, and it has been so fantastic having you

01:44:16 on today's show to really just like help break down

01:44:19 what we are experiencing today.

01:44:22 And so again, thank you so much for everything.

01:44:25 - Thank you for having me.

01:44:27 - And folks, the action isn't over yet.

01:44:30 You can continue to watch views of today's annular eclipse

01:44:34 as it moves across the path

01:44:36 by visiting go.nasa.gov/eclipse2023live.

01:44:42 That live stream will continue running

01:44:45 until 4.30 p.m. Eastern as this eclipse continues its way

01:44:50 through Central and South America.

01:44:52 Now, unlike today's ring of fire effect,

01:44:54 we are going to witness the moon completely block out

01:44:57 the face of the sun during next year's total solar eclipse.

01:45:01 The sky is going to darken as if it were dawn or dusk.

01:45:05 You can learn more about eclipses and what's in store

01:45:08 for April 8th, 2024 by visiting go.nasa.gov/eclipses.

01:45:13 The total solar eclipse is sure to be a rare event

01:45:19 and one you will not want to miss.

01:45:21 So stay up to date with sun related events

01:45:24 and how we are studying our star

01:45:26 by following NASA's sun on social media.

01:45:29 Folks, thank you to everyone who has tuned in

01:45:32 to today's coverage of the 2023 annular solar eclipse.

01:45:36 We hope to see you back here next April

01:45:39 as we ring in the last total solar eclipse

01:45:42 that will pass through the mainland US for two decades.

01:45:47 Now, here's how you can celebrate the countdown

01:45:50 to April 8th by joining our Heliophysics Big Year.

01:45:54 We are one of a hundred billion stars in a vast galaxy,

01:45:59 but for all of human culture on Earth,

01:46:02 one sun that nourishes us all.

01:46:07 That is what stirs humankind.

01:46:11 That's what unites us.

01:46:13 Experience the wonder, the beauty,

01:46:22 and the power of our star.

01:46:24 One sun across space, time, and culture.

01:46:33 Let us continue the quest to unfold this universe

01:46:38 and let us continue to find unity in our discovery.

01:47:01 It's a new era of pioneers,

01:47:05 star sailors, thinkers, and adventurers.

01:47:10 Let's go.

01:47:16 (dramatic music)

01:47:19 (dramatic music)

01:47:22 (dramatic music)

01:47:25 [inaudible].

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