U.S. begins one month countdown to solar eclipse

Record ID: 903601

  • Title: U.S. begins one month countdown to solar eclipse
  • Date: 21st July 2017
  • Summary: GREENBELT, MARYLAND, UNITED STATES (JULY 21, 2017) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) NASA SCIENTIST DR. MICHELLE THALLER SAYING: "And you're able to see something called the solar corona which is the atmosphere of the sun. So you see these streamers of light coming away from the covered up sun and that you can actually see with your unaided eye. You can take off any sort of eye protection when it's totally dark and look up at the sky. You see the stars come out. You see the planets Mercury and Venus near the sun and you actually see a 360 degree sunset all the way around you."
  • Embargoed: 4th August 2017 18:38
  • Keywords: Solar Eclipse NASA scientist totality
  • Location: GREENBELT, MARYLAND, UNITED STATES
  • City: GREENBELT, MARYLAND, UNITED STATES
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Science
  • Reuters ID: LVA0046QNW2MF
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: As thousands in the United States get ready to view the Aug. 21 solar eclipse through their special glasses, NASA will be using 11 different spacecraft to study the sun's outer atmosphere during the duration of the eclipse, NASA scientist Dr. Michelle Thaller said.
    "The moon is blocking out the main bright disk of the sun. So you can actually see what those levels of solar atmosphere are doing. It's called the corona. It's spectacular. And actually the way the corona works is still fairly mysterious," Thaller said on Friday (July 21).
    NASA will also fly high-altitude research balloons and airplanes for solar physics and other experiments.
    During the eclipse, the moon will pass between the sun and Earth, blocking the face of the sun and leaving only its outer atmosphere, or corona, visible in the sky.
    It is the first coast-to-coast total eclipse since 1918.
    Total solar eclipses occur somewhere on Earth every year or so, but most cast their shadow over oceans or remote land. The last total eclipse over part of the contiguous U.S. was in 1979.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2017. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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