Washington, London- In a first-of-its-kind phenomenon in 99 years, the sun eclipse anticipated in the United States on August 21 will offer scientists a rare chance to conduct deeper studies on the sun, its magnetic field, and the earth’s atmosphere.
Scientists hope to benefit from the audience’s turnout to observe the incident and take snaps with their phones and cameras to get more data and images for the eclipse in its different phases.
Carrie Black, an official at the National Science Foundation, said: “There has never been an event like this in human history where so many people could participate with such unique technology and social media.”
“We are expecting millions of people to participate in this event, and images and data from this will be collected and analyzed by scientists for years to come,” she added.
On August 21, the moon will pass between the Earth and Sun, blocking the light in 110 kilometers of US territories. This darkness will move from the far north western in the morning, to the Far East afternoon, passing by 14 states within 93 minutes.
In the middle of the day, the earth will see a total solar eclipse, which means that the moon will hide the sunlight completely, darkness will dominate for two minutes, and the stars will appear in the sky.
The region which will be affected by the eclipse lodges over 12 million citizen, and millions others are expected to join from other regions from the United States or other countries.
Scientists see that this eclipse is a great opportunity to test new technologies and observing the sun’s chromosphere, which is the upper layer of the Heliosphere that can only be seen during the eclipse.
Scientists always warn from the harms of looking at an eclipse with a naked eye, and stress the importance of wearing specialized glasses. NASA’s TVs will air the photos of the eclipse, along with related activities held in parks, libraries, and museums.
Another full eclipse is also expected to take place on April 8, 2024 in some US regions. However, the next similar eclipse is expected to happen on August 12, 2045.
For reasons related to the orbits of the earth, the sun, and the moon, phenomena of sun and lunar eclipses repeat once every 18 years 11 days.