Portions of Mexico, the US, and Canada will experience a rare total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, an event attracting broad public interest and launching a host of scientific experiments to study such things as animal behavior during the short-lived daytime darkness.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has set up a special website for the eclipse to provide safety recommendations and important data to assist eclipse- watchers and residents within the narrow band of darkness as it travels northeast across the continent.
NASA reports that, with cooperating local weather conditions, Mexico’s Pacific coastline will mark the phenomenon’s North American debut at approximately 11:07 a.m. PDT.
After traveling northeastward across portions of Mexico, the eclipse will pass over portions of several US states from Texas to Maine prior to exiting the Atlantic coastline of Newfoundland, Canada, at 5:16 p.m. NDT.
According to Scientific American, planned coinciding experiments include equipping volunteer citizen scientists with “small, microphone-equipped electronic devices” that will “listen for shifts in animal noises” during the brief period of “false night.”
NASA aircraft will take images during the eclipse in hopes of capturing enormous plasma eruptions arising from the Sun’s surface. Engineers and physicists will also be measuring effects on radio wave transmissions resulting from the drop in ionization that occurs when the moon’s shadow passes over an area.
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