OTD In Space - August 21: Total Solar Eclipse Expedition Crashed By WWI
On Aug. 21, 1914, a total solar eclipse temporarily darkened skies across Europe and Asia.
A young German astronomer and friend of Albert Einstein's, Erwin Finlay-Freundlich, led an expedition to the Crimean Peninsula of Russia, where he hoped to record observations that would verify Albert Einstein's general relativity theory. This theory predicted that the light from distant stars appearing very close to the sun's edge should shift due to the curvature of space. Those stars would only be visible during a total solar eclipse, when the moon blocks out the sun's bright light. Unfortunately, the start of World War One just 20 days before the eclipse foiled the expedition. After Germany declared war on Russia, Freundlich and his colleagues were captured by the Russian army and their equipment was confiscated.
A young German astronomer and friend of Albert Einstein's, Erwin Finlay-Freundlich, led an expedition to the Crimean Peninsula of Russia, where he hoped to record observations that would verify Albert Einstein's general relativity theory. This theory predicted that the light from distant stars appearing very close to the sun's edge should shift due to the curvature of space. Those stars would only be visible during a total solar eclipse, when the moon blocks out the sun's bright light. Unfortunately, the start of World War One just 20 days before the eclipse foiled the expedition. After Germany declared war on Russia, Freundlich and his colleagues were captured by the Russian army and their equipment was confiscated.
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TechTranscript
00:00On this day in space.
00:03In 1914, a total solar eclipse temporarily darkened skies across Europe and Asia.
00:08A young German astronomer and friend of Albert Einstein's, Erwin Finley Freundlich,
00:12led an expedition to the Crimean peninsula of Russia, where he hoped to record observations
00:16that would verify Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity.
00:19This theory predicted that the light from distant stars, appearing very close to the sun's edge,
00:23should shift due to the curvature of space.
00:26Those stars would only be visible during a total solar eclipse
00:29when the moon blocks out the sun's bright light.
00:31Unfortunately, the start of World War I, just 20 days before the eclipse, spoiled the expedition.
00:36After Germany declared war on Russia, Freundlich and his colleagues were captured by the Russians,
00:40effectively canceling the expedition.
00:42And that's what happened on this day in space.
00:45NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology