0:03

Have you ever experienced a

0:05

total solar eclipse? It's

0:09

this strange, magical, somewhat unsettling

0:11

moment when, in the middle

0:13

of the day, the world

0:15

suddenly goes dark as

0:17

the moon blocks out the sun. The

0:20

first eclipse I saw was back

0:23

in the early 1960s. And

0:26

I was only, let's see,

0:28

that would have made me 11 years old. My

0:32

first total solar eclipse was

0:35

in 2017, and I had the privilege of

0:37

being on the USS Yorktown

0:41

in Charleston Harbor in South

0:44

Carolina. That's Fred

0:46

Espenak and Kelly Korak. Kelly

0:48

is a NASA sun scientist who studies

0:50

total solar eclipses and Fred's

0:52

an eclipse addict. He's earned

0:54

his nickname, Mr. Eclipse, by experiencing

0:56

30 of them all over the

0:59

world. Now the

1:01

odds that you, listening to this episode,

1:03

are currently experiencing a total solar

1:05

eclipse are pretty low. They're

1:07

rare phenomena. In any given

1:09

place, where you live, for example,

1:11

you'll only get about one every

1:13

four centuries. So I'm not going

1:15

to get in the way here. I'm going to

1:18

let Kelly and Fred tell you what experiencing

1:20

one first-hand is like. And

1:24

leading up here, this is actually a really kind

1:26

of eerie scene. You

1:28

start to notice that the quality of light now

1:30

is starting to look a little odd. The

1:32

light seems weird, and your brain

1:35

definitely starts thinking, something doesn't seem

1:37

right. So there's this

1:39

feeling of kind of anxiety, yet

1:41

also excitement. The sun is no

1:43

longer a disk in the sky. It's

1:45

a thin crescent. And on the

1:48

ground underneath a shade tree, you'll see the

1:50

ground covered with little crescent suns. It's

1:52

an amazing thing. And

1:55

the first part that happens is

1:57

Bailey's beads. So you see these

1:59

bright little lights. There are the sun rays

2:01

coming through the mountains and valleys on

2:03

the moon. We forget

2:05

that the sun is what's giving us warmth, but

2:08

in the last 10 minutes when you've got over 90% of

2:11

the sun covered, the temperature is going to

2:13

start to drop. My

2:15

reaction physiologically is that the hair on

2:17

the back of my neck is standing

2:19

up, my heart is racing, and

2:22

you just get a visceral feeling in

2:24

your gut that something is wrong. This

2:27

just does not seem natural. It

2:30

seems so far out of any kind of

2:32

everyday experience. What

2:35

does happen in general in eclipses is

2:37

that animals think it's nighttime. Animals

2:41

such as crickets, roosters think it's nighttime,

2:43

it's time to roost. If you've

2:45

got birds around, they might start

2:48

singing their evening songs because

2:50

they think it's sunset, it's getting dark out

2:52

for them. You're

2:54

seeing these light beads all along the

2:57

side of the dark moon that's covering

2:59

the bright sun. And

3:01

then you see one final one which is called

3:03

the diamond ring, and you see totality. And

3:08

in the last few seconds, the moon shadow races

3:10

over you and it's traveling over a thousand miles

3:12

an hour. You don't see the edge of the

3:14

shadow, either you're in it or you're out of

3:16

it. It just sweeps over you so rapidly.

3:19

You're plunged into it and suddenly daylight

3:22

drops to an eerie twilight, about

3:24

as dark as it gets, maybe

3:26

about a half hour after sunset.

3:30

And when you look out in the directions of

3:32

the horizon, you're looking at the edge of the

3:34

shadow into areas that are still

3:36

in daylight. So you look around the horizon

3:38

and you're surrounded by sort of a 360 degree sunrise in

3:42

all directions, sunrise and sunset. And

3:45

of course then you look back up at

3:47

the sky to where the sun had been

3:49

and there's no brilliant sun in the sky

3:51

anymore. What it's been replaced by is

3:54

a black disk surrounded

3:56

by this eerie gossamer

3:58

halo which which is the sun's groter.

4:01

At this time, you don't need your special

4:04

glasses. You can look with your own eyes

4:06

at the protrusions from the sun, which

4:08

are filaments. They're millions of degrees

4:11

of hot gas that are flowing

4:13

off the sun. And

4:15

it's indescribable. It's so beautiful. The shape

4:17

of it is always different at each

4:20

eclipse because it's affected by the magnetic

4:22

fields of the sun, which are changing

4:24

from day to day. And

4:28

it was breathtaking. The

4:30

things that I had

4:32

studied my entire

4:34

career were there right in

4:37

front of my eyes. And

4:39

they had been hidden by the brightness

4:41

that the sun normally has. So

4:44

I was with friends. And there

4:46

was much laughter

4:49

and hugging and just

4:52

overall an amazing experience. Wow.

4:55

That's so great. Even

4:58

though most total eclipse last two or

5:00

three minutes, all of them seem to

5:02

last only a few seconds, subjectively because

5:04

it happened so quickly. Because

5:06

now you're outside the moon's

5:08

shadow again. And you're plunged

5:11

right back into bright sunlight. The

5:13

shadow races off across

5:15

the Earth's surface and leaves

5:17

you. You've got another hour or so

5:19

of partial phases. But you've

5:21

just experienced the total eclipse.

5:25

Everyone who experiences a total solar eclipse

5:28

seems to come away with the same

5:30

question. For most people,

5:33

the first question on their mind is, when's

5:35

the next one? Would you be good to do

5:37

that again? Because I want to see it.

5:39

Because it is just such an amazing experience.

5:49

This is NASA's Curious Universe. Our

5:52

universe is a wild and wonderful place.

5:55

I'm your host, Patti Boyd. And in this

5:57

podcast, NASA is your tour guide.

6:00

Welcome to the second episode of our

6:02

Sun Series. It's a big

6:04

year for our nearest star. We're near

6:07

solar maximum when the Sun is at

6:09

its most active and explosive. And

6:12

NASA's Parker Solar Probe is going to make

6:14

its closest approach to our star flying

6:16

through its atmosphere. So

6:18

in our star's honor we're taking a deep,

6:21

five-part dive into the plasma.

6:24

If you missed our first episode, you might want to go

6:26

back and check that one out too. At

6:31

the time of this recording, there's a total

6:33

solar eclipse on the horizon in North America.

6:36

On April 8, 2024, the

6:39

moon will pass directly between the

6:41

Sun and Earth, totally blocking its

6:43

light for several minutes along a

6:45

path stretching from Mexico to Canada.

6:48

And since our Sun's atmosphere, the

6:50

corona, is particularly active right now,

6:54

scientists are expecting a pretty stellar show.

6:57

We have about two minutes here, folks, as

6:59

you can hear, the crowd

7:01

is chanting and counting down until

7:03

our moment right now. Roughly

7:06

32 million people living in the

7:08

path of totality, locations where the

7:10

moon will completely cover the Sun,

7:12

will get to experience a

7:15

total solar eclipse. And 99%

7:17

of Americans will experience at least a partial eclipse. Wait

7:21

one more minute, Boba. But

7:23

if you live elsewhere in the world, don't tune

7:25

out. Wherever you are on Earth,

7:27

chances are there will be a total solar eclipse

7:31

somewhere near you at some point within

7:33

your lifetime. And you won't want to miss

7:35

it. When the Sun and moon, the

7:37

two most important celestial objects in

7:39

our sky, align perfectly to cast a

7:41

shadow right on us, there'll be a

7:44

reminder like no other of our place

7:46

in the solar system, on

7:48

a little wall of rock in a vastness of

7:50

space. One, two, three,

7:53

two, one. I

8:01

mean, that was really the news. I didn't

8:03

think I would cry. I couldn't. Wow.

8:07

You know, I thought I'd have goosebumps, but I'm not

8:09

literally shaking. This is crazy. I

8:11

know. I know. I

8:13

agree. So in this

8:15

second episode, we'll learn all about eclipses.

8:18

The science behind this cosmic coincidence? What

8:21

drives Umbra-Files, also known as Eclipse

8:23

Chasers, to chase totality all over

8:25

the world? How indigenous Americans

8:27

a thousand years ago studied and respected

8:29

the sun and the moon during eclipses?

8:32

And the unique NASA research that

8:34

can only happen during the few

8:36

short minutes when everything aligns? Oh,

8:39

and we might just solve a mystery. One

8:42

that has to do with tree

8:44

rings, bowls, spacecraft, and ancient petroglyphs

8:46

carved into a desert rock. And

8:50

Eclipse is all about being at

8:52

the right place at the

8:54

right time and things

8:56

literally aligning just with you. That's

8:59

Kelly again. She's a NASA

9:01

sun scientist, a heliophysicist, and she's also

9:03

the program manager for the 2024 eclipse.

9:07

So what we're talking about

9:09

aligning here is the

9:12

moon, the sun, and the Earth.

9:15

And depending on which order they're in, you're

9:17

going to either block out the sun or

9:19

block out the moon. When

9:21

things align differently, so the Earth casts

9:23

its shadow on the moon, that's a

9:25

lunar eclipse. But what's happening on

9:27

April 8th is rarer, a solar

9:30

eclipse. So that means the sun is

9:32

out front, the moon is in

9:34

the middle, and it's blocking out the sun

9:37

to the Earth's vantage point. And

9:39

it doesn't happen everywhere on Earth. It's

9:41

a very special path that you actually

9:43

can see the moon completely blocking out

9:45

the sun. On a map,

9:48

that path looks like a long

9:50

curved stripe that the circular shadow

9:52

of the moon travels along as

9:54

the eclipse swoops across Earth's surface.

9:57

The path of totality, or that path where you're in, is

9:59

a very special path. going to see that

10:01

total eclipse is really narrow

10:03

because actually the moon's shadow is very

10:05

narrow. The moon is very small compared

10:07

to the Earth and compared to the

10:09

sun. It just happens to be just

10:11

far enough away at the right size

10:14

to actually block out the sun. That

10:16

we have total solar eclipses at all

10:19

is something of a cosmic coincidence. Not

10:22

every planet with a moon has eclipses like ours.

10:25

The sun is way bigger, 400 times

10:27

wider than the moon. But

10:29

the moon can fully block its light because it also

10:32

happens to be 400 times closer to us

10:34

than the sun. So to us

10:36

here on Earth, they look exactly the same size.

10:40

And of course, to experience an eclipse,

10:42

not only do you have to be

10:45

in exactly the right place, the path

10:47

of totality, you also have to

10:49

be there at just the right time. The

10:52

eclipses only happen every so often or

10:54

about every 18 months somewhere

10:57

on Earth. That's because

10:59

the moon's orbit is slightly tilted. It

11:01

doesn't always perfectly line up with the sun and

11:03

Earth. But while it takes centuries on

11:06

average for an eclipse to repeat in a given

11:08

place, they're happening fairly often

11:10

somewhere on Earth. So

11:12

if you miss the total solar eclipse in

11:14

North America this April, not to worry. You

11:17

can catch the next one in Europe in 2026. In

11:20

Africa in 2027. In

11:23

Australia in 2028. And

11:25

so on for at least the next

11:27

few million years. It's an

11:29

eclipse world tour. But

11:32

that also means when there's an eclipse in

11:34

your neighborhood and you don't have to voyage

11:36

halfway around the planet to see it, it's

11:38

pretty special. And experiencing it

11:41

is even more special. As

11:43

much as it's a celestial event and it's

11:45

a date and it's a time, it's a

11:48

full experience. It's really

11:50

a full body

11:52

inspirational, almost spiritual

11:55

experience to see this eclipse.

12:00

firsthand can be transformative, so much

12:02

so that some people get hooked.

12:05

Eclipse chasers go all over the world in

12:07

search of these eclipses, and actually we know

12:09

very well that where they're going to be,

12:12

so for the next about 5,000 years, so

12:15

we can plan our travel

12:17

accordingly. Since they happen somewhere

12:20

on Earth every 18 months or so, as

12:22

an eclipse chaser you can experience quite a

12:24

few eclipses in a lifetime, if

12:26

you're willing to do some serious travel that is. And

12:29

some folks are more than willing,

12:31

those eclipse chasers, or as they're

12:34

sometimes called, umbra files, lovers of

12:36

shadow. Mr.

12:38

Eclipse, Fred Espinek, is one of them.

12:41

For him, part of the fun of eclipses

12:43

is mathematical. He likes to make his own

12:45

predictions about where they'll happen next. But

12:48

on a more visceral gut

12:50

wrenching appeal, it is simply

12:52

the most incredible celestial event

12:54

you can see. And

12:56

you don't need a Hubble Space Telescope, all you

12:58

got to do is be able to get into

13:01

the path of the eclipse and be there on

13:03

the right day and the right time and have

13:05

some luck with the weather to see this event.

13:08

Fred is a retired NASA astronomer. Now

13:10

he lives out in the Arizona desert

13:12

with his telescopes. I built

13:15

one observatory and it

13:17

got so crowded, I had so many telescopes, I

13:19

had to build the second one. So

13:21

I've got two now. The skies out here

13:23

are absolutely beautiful. I lose a lot

13:25

of sleep. He started working at NASA

13:27

in 1976, the week

13:30

the Viking spacecraft landed on Mars.

13:34

It wasn't Fred's main job, but he

13:36

quickly got into making eclipse predictions, which

13:38

isn't an easy thing to do. The

13:40

first component is you've got to have a good

13:43

model for, it's called an

13:45

ephemeris, basically it's a

13:47

mathematical model that describes where the

13:49

Earth, the Moon, and

13:51

the Sun are in space with respect

13:53

to each other. With that

13:56

ephemeris, you know when an eclipse will

13:58

happen, but to figure out what where it'll

14:00

happen, you have to model how the moon's

14:02

shadow moves. You've

14:04

got a shadow moving over a curved

14:06

surface that's not perfectly circular either. You

14:08

have to take into account the fact

14:10

that the earth's shape is no-blade spheroid.

14:13

It's sort of a little squashed sphere a little bit.

14:16

And you have to take that small effect

14:18

into account and the speed of the

14:20

shadow and how rapidly it moves across the earth's

14:22

surface. A lot of mathematics, a lot of modeling

14:25

on the computer. That

14:28

is far from the first person to predict

14:30

future eclipses. Humans have been doing

14:32

that for at least the last 3,000 years

14:34

just by keeping track of the moon and sun's

14:37

position in the sky. Then they

14:39

got a lot more accurate. In the

14:41

1700s, Edmund Halley, yes, the

14:43

same guy the famous comet is named

14:45

after, made the first models

14:47

of how the moon's shadow moves across the

14:49

earth during eclipses. And he

14:51

asked regular people across England to time

14:53

the eclipse using the grandfather clocks in

14:56

their homes. Suddenly,

14:58

we could predict both when and where

15:00

eclipses would happen with precision. Here

15:04

at NASA, a couple of centuries later,

15:06

Fred got so into predicting eclipses like

15:08

Halley and generations of people before him

15:10

that he earned his nickname. And

15:13

I guess one time somebody introduced

15:15

me as Mr. Eclipsed because I

15:17

was developing a reputation for

15:20

lecturing on eclipses and photographing eclipses and

15:22

talking about eclipses. So

15:24

that name just sort of stuck. But

15:28

Mr. Eclipsed's total obsession with

15:30

totality started long before he

15:32

joined NASA, back when he saw

15:34

that first eclipse in the 1960s as an 11-year-old. And

15:38

I had a small amateur telescope, a

15:40

department store telescope that my parents had

15:42

got me a year or two earlier.

15:45

And I was very excited about the upcoming eclipse.

15:48

And I was visiting my grandparents

15:51

in southern New York at their

15:53

summer home. And

15:56

from where I was located, it was only

15:59

a partial eclipse. Looking

16:01

up through his little telescope, Fred

16:03

was mesmerized. But

16:06

the thing is, a partial eclipse isn't

16:08

anything like a total eclipse. The

16:10

way Fred puts it... A

16:13

partial eclipse is certainly like getting five

16:15

out of the six numbers in

16:18

the lottery. You're almost

16:20

one, but basically you lost.

16:23

If you don't get all six numbers, six

16:25

numbers is the total eclipse. Five

16:28

numbers is a partial. There's no comparison.

16:30

One's a loser and one's a winner. He's

16:32

thought a lot about this. A

16:35

partial eclipse is like having

16:37

a tailgate party in the parking lot during

16:39

the Super Bowl. So,

16:42

after watching the partial eclipse from his grandparents'

16:44

house, Fred decided he had

16:46

to see a total eclipse. But

16:49

there was a problem. The next one on the

16:51

continent was in 1970, almost a decade away. So

16:55

as an 11-year-old, he put it on his

16:57

calendar. After years of

16:59

waiting, the day finally arrived. By

17:02

then, Fred had a driver's license. He was a senior

17:04

in high school. I can miss

17:06

my parents to let me borrow

17:08

the family car, un-shaparone, and

17:11

drive 600 miles

17:13

south to get into the path

17:15

of this total eclipse. And

17:19

I've been planning this thing for seven years. I

17:22

had read lots of books and magazine articles about

17:24

it. I had my little telescope with me with

17:26

a camera hooked up to it now. I was

17:28

going to try to take pictures of this event.

17:31

And I managed to get a couple

17:33

of pictures, but I was absolutely dumbfounded

17:35

by the event. It was

17:38

so spectacular, so incredible,

17:40

so far beyond anything

17:42

I possibly could have imagined. As

17:45

Fred drove to the eclipse, he had

17:47

accepted that it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

17:49

But after he saw it, he had

17:51

to see the next one. So initially,

17:54

I thought this was my one chance. After this

17:56

was over, I knew I had to

17:58

see another eclipse. One was

18:00

not enough, that three minutes went

18:02

by so quickly, and there

18:04

was so much to see, and it was so

18:06

exquisitely beautiful. The next one in

18:08

the US wouldn't happen for 21 years, in 1991. But

18:13

there would be one in Canada in 1972. Well,

18:17

that was only a thousand miles to drive to, I could get

18:19

to that. After the eclipse in

18:21

Canada that year, 1991

18:23

still seemed like far too long to wait, so

18:26

he looked for the next eclipse. The

18:28

next one after 1972 was in 1973. Now

18:32

this was a little more challenging because this

18:34

one was in the Sahara Desert in

18:37

Northern Africa. As

18:41

you might have guessed, he made it there. And

18:43

that was just the beginning. At

18:45

some point, once you start chasing eclipses,

18:48

it gets hard to stop. That

18:50

was just the start of a, you

18:52

might say, a lifelong addiction of

18:55

chasing total eclipses all over the

18:57

world. So by this point, over

18:59

the past 50, 53, 54 years, I've

19:05

been to 30 total eclipses of the

19:07

sun, and I've seen a

19:09

total eclipse on every continent, including Antarctica.

19:13

So it's taken me all over the world. Unusual

19:15

places like the Altiplano

19:18

of Bolivia, or

19:21

the desert in Mongolia, or

19:25

East Africa with wild animals

19:27

and spectacular wildlife. Not

19:34

every eclipse has been spectacular. Some

19:36

have been frustrating, ruined by

19:39

cloudy skies, an eclipse chaser's worst

19:41

nightmare. As an eclipse chaser,

19:43

you're always worried about the weather. You can

19:45

predict exactly where and when a total eclipse

19:47

is gonna be, when it's

19:49

gonna start, when the total phase

19:52

will begin, exactly how many seconds

19:54

of totality you're going to get. All

19:57

these things can be predicted years

19:59

in advance. But you can't predict

20:01

the weather tomorrow. But Fred

20:03

does get asked a lot. Does he

20:05

have a favorite? The

20:07

funny thing about that question is, is

20:10

occasionally my wife Pat will

20:13

go to some of my lectures with me. And

20:16

she noticed that I was answering that

20:18

question wrong. When I told

20:20

people what my favorite eclipse was, she

20:23

had to remind me that my favorite eclipse

20:27

was the one where the two of us met. That

20:29

was almost 30 years ago,

20:32

halfway around the world in India, we

20:34

were both on the same eclipse trip

20:36

together. Spark flew and

20:39

eventually we got married. And she's

20:41

been a traveling companion to

20:43

most of my eclipses since then. It's

20:46

hard to describe what's so special about

20:48

eclipses to someone who hasn't experienced one

20:51

before. But there's just something about how

20:53

it's both predictable, routine, and inevitable for

20:55

Earth and humanity in general, and

20:57

so profoundly affecting, to actually witness

20:59

in person. No matter

21:02

what mankind does, there's nothing

21:04

we can do to change or

21:07

impede or affect in any way

21:09

the eclipse. It's going to happen at a

21:12

certain time and at

21:14

a certain place. It's an inevitability of it.

21:17

And it gives you a sense of

21:19

perspective of how small and insignificant we

21:21

are in the universe. And at the

21:24

same time, we're a piece of it.

21:26

We're an integral part of it. So

21:29

it's an interesting effect to

21:31

experience a total eclipse. And

21:33

it's a humbling experience, I think.

21:40

And for the April 2024 eclipse, Fred's

21:42

plans are made. He's going

21:44

down to Mexico, where he's crossing his fingers

21:47

for clear skies and getting ready to add

21:49

another eclipse to his collection. These

21:54

are an incredible experience, but for

21:56

NASA, they're also really important opportunities

21:58

for science. For

22:00

centuries, we've looked up at the sky with

22:02

big questions, and eclipses have

22:04

repeatedly given us the answers during

22:06

experiments that are only possible during

22:08

the few moments of totality. Here's

22:11

Kelly again. The eclipses

22:13

are special for science because they set

22:15

up the right conditions

22:18

in our laboratory of the sun, the

22:20

earth, and the moon. So

22:22

for instance, Einstein's theory

22:25

of relativity was actually

22:27

proven during an eclipse.

22:30

After Einstein published his theory of

22:32

general relativity in 1915, scientists' big

22:36

question was whether he was right about

22:38

gravity's power to affect space and time,

22:41

warping light around stars. After

22:44

four years of waiting for a solar eclipse to

22:46

dim the sun enough to look, they

22:48

proved him right. Today,

22:50

our big question is about the sun

22:52

itself, why its atmosphere,

22:55

the corona, is so much hotter,

22:57

millions of degrees hotter, than its surface.

23:01

Scientists are studying the sun all the time, using

23:04

lots of tools in spacecraft, but

23:06

they're particularly excited about the upcoming

23:09

eclipse. Without an

23:11

eclipse, it's pretty hard to see and

23:13

study the corona from here on earth, because

23:15

the surface, the photosphere, is a

23:18

million times brighter. It's

23:20

like trying to take a picture of a light bulb. It's really hard

23:22

to see anything else around it, because

23:25

it's the brightest thing in a picture. So

23:27

when you block out the sun, that middle part

23:29

that's super bright, you're able to

23:31

look at the outside.

23:35

We have spacecraft and telescopes that block

23:37

out the sun, creating an artificial eclipse

23:39

so scientists can look at the corona

23:41

through the instrument's eyes. But they're

23:43

not nearly as good at the job as our

23:45

own moon is. So

23:47

here at NASA, every eclipse is an

23:49

opportunity. The sun being blocked by our

23:51

moon offers scientists a few precious moments

23:54

to study the St. Corona of our

23:56

star. And those moments

23:58

of totality are so precious. Precious, the heliophysicists

24:00

have a trick up their sleeves to

24:02

get the most out of that very

24:04

limited time, using a fancy

24:07

high-flying plane called a WB57.

24:09

So this eclipse is going

24:12

to be around four, four and a half minutes of

24:14

time, so that sounds really short, but

24:16

clever scientists have figured out how to

24:18

extend that a little by using the

24:21

WB57 airplane and putting their instruments aboard

24:23

that and flying along the path so

24:26

they don't get a lot more time,

24:28

but they get a little bit more

24:30

time to make observations and get that

24:33

important data during the eclipse. While

24:35

flying really fast and high up in the

24:38

Earth's atmosphere during the eclipse, they can get

24:40

about 10 to 20 seconds more out of

24:42

totality than you can on the ground. It's

24:45

not that long because the shadow is moving

24:47

much faster than an airplane can fly, but

24:50

every moment counts. This

24:54

has happened as long as humans have lived on

24:56

Earth, and much longer than

24:58

that, and beyond being unique opportunities for

25:01

eclipse chasers to experience and scientists to

25:03

study, the alignment of our

25:05

Earth, Sun, and Moon provides a

25:07

unique opportunity to connect across time

25:09

and space with sun-gazers past

25:11

and present, and

25:13

even, maybe, make new discoveries

25:15

in the process. All

25:18

of our ancestors, not just in the

25:20

Southwest, but you and I have sun-watching

25:22

ancestors, all of your listeners, have people

25:25

in their history, in their ancestry, who

25:27

learn to live well and in harmony

25:29

with the cycles of the sun. So

25:32

the seasonal cycles of the sun, they

25:34

used to learn where the sun rises

25:36

and sets on a horizon to track

25:38

time and to, ah, it's time for

25:41

the winter, winter ceremony, time to prepare

25:43

for harvesting, time to prepare for planting.

25:45

You learn to live in harmony with

25:48

the seasonal cycle of the sun. We

25:50

wouldn't be here if our ancestors didn't figure that

25:53

out. That's

25:55

Cherylin Morrow, astrophysicist and outreach

25:57

director of NASA's PUNCH mission.

26:00

I like to introduce myself these days as

26:02

saying I'm a solar physicist by

26:04

brain, by mind and training, and

26:06

I'm an educator at heart, and

26:09

I am a singer or

26:11

songwriter by soul. Cherilyn

26:14

grew up wanting to become an astronaut. She

26:16

became a pilot and then an astrophysicist. Then

26:20

she realized that her true calling was

26:22

connecting other people of all backgrounds and

26:24

cultures to space and science through

26:27

our sun. She never made

26:29

it to the moon, but now she spends her time

26:31

in a place she says is nearly as otherworldly.

26:34

It's a place called Chaco Canyon

26:36

in northwestern New Mexico, the

26:39

place where sun watching on this continent

26:41

began. Chaco

26:43

Canyon captured my heart

26:45

and my spirit of adventure.

26:48

Chaco was like my moon.

26:51

It's a very austere, high desert

26:54

landscape. Long horizons as

26:56

far as you can see, which makes it

26:58

very good for sun watching. And

27:01

canyon walls, red rocks, low

27:04

vegetation, juniper, salt bush,

27:06

sage, pungent, desert-like smells,

27:08

very dry climate, very

27:10

cold in the winter

27:12

and very hot in

27:15

the summer. It's a very remote,

27:18

challenging natural environment for anyone to

27:20

live in. And yet, a

27:22

thousand years ago, all roads

27:24

in the region led to Chaco. There's

27:28

evidence of ancient, thousand-year-old sun

27:30

watching throughout the southwest at

27:32

Chaco culture sites like Mesa

27:34

Verde, Bears Ears, and Shimiroc.

27:37

But Chaco Canyon drew people from across

27:39

the region. It was especially

27:41

important. It's a World

27:44

Heritage site today, well known for

27:46

its monumental sandstone buildings, perfectly aligned

27:48

to the cardinal directions. But

27:53

the more scientists have studied Chaco, the

27:55

more they've come to realize that the

27:57

ancestral Puebloans who once lived here... who

28:00

are watching the sky. If

28:02

you look closely enough, you'll find spiral

28:04

petroglyphs, rock art carved into

28:06

cliff faces that act as little stand

28:08

here signs. They indicate exactly

28:10

the right spot to wait and look

28:12

out at the horizon to see the

28:15

sun shine through certain rock formations on

28:17

the equinox and solstice. So

28:19

when it was time to pick a place

28:21

to focus outreach efforts for NASA's new punch

28:23

mission, Cherylin picked Chaco. So

28:26

by focusing on Chaco, which is

28:29

regionally important to the descendants of

28:31

the people who built Chaco, yet

28:34

it also is a World Heritage

28:36

Site. We actually are able to

28:38

connect with the cultures there.

28:41

So we're in collaboration, right,

28:43

with the descendants of

28:45

the ancestral Pueblan people who made Chaco

28:48

come alive a thousand years ago. To

28:51

Cherylin, there's a direct line from the

28:53

past inhabitants of Chaco who studied the

28:55

sun here to learn how to live

28:58

within the seasons it controls and

29:00

NASA's own efforts to study the sun through

29:02

missions like punch. The punch

29:04

mission consists of four suitcase size satellites

29:07

that will fly through the space between

29:09

the sun and earth to form a

29:11

three dimensional image of the incoming

29:13

solar wind, data that could

29:15

improve space weather forecasts beyond what we

29:17

can do today. Punch

29:19

is going to study the science

29:21

of when does the sun's corona,

29:24

the sun's outer atmosphere, right, that

29:26

we see during a total solar

29:28

eclipse. When does that

29:30

corona end on the

29:32

solar wind stream begin? That

29:35

region between the planets, that interplanetary

29:37

space, when does the corona end

29:40

as the solar wind begins? So

29:43

just like the petroglyphs and calendar

29:45

like rock formations, the ancestors of

29:48

today's Puebloans built here at Chaco

29:50

to understand and live within the

29:52

earthly seasons are sun controls. The

29:55

punch mission is going to

29:57

play a role in learning to live well

30:00

and harmony with the Sun's

30:02

magnetic activity cycle. That

30:04

activity cycle and its storms affect

30:06

our technological world. Our

30:09

theme portrays NASA's exploration of

30:11

the Sun, NASA heliophysics, as

30:14

a natural extension of

30:16

humans' long-lived inclination and dedication

30:18

to studying the rhythms and

30:21

mysteries of the Sun. Really,

30:24

our ancestors got it started to learn

30:26

how to live well with the Sun,

30:28

and NASA exploration is

30:31

just an ongoing, contemporary way in which

30:33

we do that. As

30:35

Cherylin dug in further at Chaco, she

30:37

learned about a particularly interesting connection

30:39

to NASA's science at a site

30:42

called Rock of the Sun. It

30:45

was one of those rock carvings, a petroglyph,

30:48

but one unlike any other she'd seen

30:50

in Chaco Canyon. So,

30:53

this petroglyph is about hand size.

30:55

If you, an adult person, reaches

30:57

their hand, spreads out their thumb

31:00

to pinky, that's about the size

31:02

of the petroglyph. Eight inches

31:04

across, it's a circle, and

31:06

it has curly-q lines emanating from

31:08

all around the petroglyph, and then

31:11

up to the left, there's another

31:13

pecking of a smaller circle. Those

31:16

curly-q lines look suspiciously like

31:18

a stormy solar corona, visible

31:21

during an eclipse that coincides with

31:23

solar maximum. Like our

31:25

2024 eclipse will, picture the

31:28

scene, an ancestral preblem

31:30

nearly 500 years before the

31:32

first Europeans set foot in New Mexico,

31:35

looking up at a darkening sky and

31:37

a flaming sun, and creating

31:39

a permanent record of what they saw. They

31:43

may have even collaborated on it, like

31:45

multiple people saw it, only

31:47

for a few minutes during totality, and then

31:49

collaborated, what did you see? What did you

31:51

see? And they collaborated on what

31:53

would be represented in the stone. This

31:56

is not the same as taking a picture. Your

31:59

eyes are actually big. at seeing

32:01

the structures of the corona. If you

32:03

notice when you look and you perceive

32:05

those structures weighing out from the disk

32:08

in the sky, you take

32:10

a picture and you'll get far less

32:12

information. The Chaco inhabitants,

32:15

looking up at a less-colluded sky, would

32:18

have been able to see the corona more clearly

32:20

during their solar maximum eclipse than we'll be able

32:22

to in 2024. But

32:24

does the rock of the sun petroglyph really

32:26

depict a stormy solar corona

32:28

during an eclipse? Well,

32:31

just like we can predict eclipses thousands of years

32:33

into the future, we can also

32:35

accurately determine when they happened in the

32:37

past. So we do know there

32:39

was an eclipse in 1097. We

32:42

know that the 1097 eclipse

32:45

path of totality included Chaco, so

32:48

that's for sure. Through

32:50

some wild science that involves tracking radiation from the

32:52

sun recorded in tree rings, scientists

32:56

determined that 1097 eclipse did happen during

32:59

a period of high solar activity. And that

33:02

means it was more likely

33:05

that there would be solar storms, where

33:08

that stuff coming off the sun

33:10

can be exploded off out of

33:12

the corona. These are the

33:14

type of storms that punch will monitor from

33:17

the time they leave the corona all the way to

33:19

Earth orbit. Well, of course, we don't

33:21

have punch in 1097, but

33:23

what we have are naked eye observations by

33:25

the people who were resident in Chaco. This

33:28

was a time of high solar activity, but

33:30

also high human activity in Chaco.

33:33

This was a time when people were still building the

33:36

monumental sunstone architecture that we can see

33:38

the remains of when we go there

33:40

today. So the indigenous Chacoans really

33:42

would have been looking up at

33:44

a very active corona. But

33:46

Cherylin still has questions. We

33:49

know that it was a stormy

33:51

time of high maximum. Did the

33:53

Chacoans witness some kind

33:55

of kinks or curls or curves

33:58

in the corona during Chaco? It's

34:01

just a few minutes of time, that's all you

34:03

get. Did they witness something

34:05

that they then recorded an impression of

34:07

in that rock art? We're very

34:09

excited about that question and about

34:11

how modern NASA spacecraft like

34:13

the Solar and Cellospheric

34:16

Observatory, Zoho, who routinely

34:18

measures the corona or makes images

34:20

of the solar corona, Solar Dynamics

34:22

Observatory, other missions who are

34:24

observing the corona, we can compare with

34:26

that data that we didn't have before

34:29

and see, wow, those features, do they

34:31

line up, do they match up with

34:33

what we now routinely observe in the

34:36

corona? She hopes that by bringing

34:38

together the petroglyph carving, some old

34:41

drawings of eclipses from the 1800s,

34:43

Chicoan pottery she came across with

34:45

similar curly-Q motifs, and

34:47

NASA imagery of the corona, she'll

34:50

be able to narrow down how

34:52

humans depict the corona during solar

34:54

maximum in art. There's

34:56

no way to know for sure. But

34:59

one thing is certain, this petroglyph

35:01

is pretty special. What we

35:03

know from our cultural partners and

35:06

the descendants with whom we're working, what

35:08

we know is that whatever they saw,

35:10

it was important to them or they

35:12

wouldn't have taken the time and trouble

35:15

to carve it into rocks so beautifully

35:17

and so meticulously. There's

35:19

no reason to think experiencing an eclipse

35:21

in 1097 would be any less enchanting

35:23

than it is today. The

35:26

spectacle of the moon blocking out all

35:28

of the light of the sun in

35:30

the middle of the day is

35:33

just transcending. Because

35:36

of the eerie lighting, the earthly

35:38

existence becomes a bit surreal and

35:41

the celestial reality becomes very real.

35:44

It's a lovely cosmic coincidence that

35:47

we have this thing, a total solar

35:49

eclipse from Earth. The

35:52

most important point is that eclipses

35:54

are this unique cosmic coincidence that

35:56

we can experience here on Earth and

35:58

when we experience them. We can take

36:01

a moment to think about our place in the universe and

36:04

our place in human history. When

36:07

we come into contact with viewing the

36:10

Sun's Corona, we can commune

36:13

with the Chacoans across time,

36:15

space, and culture, connecting

36:17

the ancestral people who

36:20

witnessed this eclipse in

36:22

1097 and may have recorded it in their rocker

36:25

to now where we can see

36:27

an eclipse at a time of

36:29

high solar activity. Wow! This

36:32

is amazing! You can hear people

36:34

screaming in the background. People

36:37

are so excited. And connect

36:39

it not only with them, but connect it

36:41

with the NASA missions that are exploring. As

36:46

you look up at the Sun's stormy

36:48

Corona this year, revealed by the solar

36:50

eclipse, just like the Chacoans

36:52

did almost a thousand years before you,

36:55

think about how many people have done

36:57

the same throughout history. And

37:00

think about NASA's Parker Solar Probe flying

37:02

through that Corona that you can see

37:04

with your own eyes for

37:06

just a few minutes during totality. Take

37:10

off your eclipse glasses safely of course and

37:12

make sure you look at the shadows around

37:14

you, look at how the environment has changed,

37:16

and just make note of this entire event.

37:19

And in all that brief excitement, don't forget

37:21

to take a moment to reflect on how

37:23

many millions of other people are

37:25

doing just what you're doing across the

37:27

country, looking out into

37:30

the cosmos at a rare event

37:32

that is beyond human existence, all

37:34

together at once. And

37:36

I feel like that's a very unifying idea

37:38

that something in the natural world is being

37:40

offered that we can all, all of us,

37:42

no matter where we are in the US,

37:44

can connect to. This is a

37:46

way in which we can feel the unity. Everybody

37:49

in the 48 contiguous states can see at

37:51

least a partial. We are all in this

37:53

cosmos. We All belong to this cosmos in

37:56

this universe. This is our star, all of

37:58

us. One

38:00

son. Wow

38:06

Goosebumps! I'm so so excited to

38:08

experience this eclipse myself and I'm

38:10

especially excited to share it with

38:13

all of you. So.

38:15

Before we go. A. Quick word

38:17

from the Nasa astronauts of Expedition

38:19

Sixty Nine. Stephen. Bowen what

38:22

he Holberg and United Arab Emirates

38:24

asthma cel time on the Yeti.

38:27

They. Just got back from the International Space

38:29

Station and they have a Total Solar Eclipse

38:31

safety message for us. Let's take a listen.

38:36

Oh, Cubs fans are citizens Issue I here

38:38

and we're on a mission to get you

38:40

all ready for the upcoming Total Eclipse. This

38:42

is exciting and there's a lot to cover.

38:45

If you're on the path of totality, everything

38:47

will get dark and you'll be in for

38:49

their so I thought, expect lots of goosebumps.

38:51

I'm sure everyone watching wants to know how

38:53

to safely see it, right? Here's the deal.

38:56

The only time you can look at the

38:58

a Total Eclipse without I protection is during

39:00

a brief period of fatalities, and the moon

39:02

completely covers the sun during any part of

39:04

the side without protection. even. For short

39:06

amount of time to cause serious

39:09

I damage, never look directly at

39:11

the sun without proper I protection.

39:13

Sunglasses are not enough to shield

39:15

your eyes from harmful. Solar Race

39:17

is certified Solar Viewing glasses or

39:19

handheld solar viewers to observe the

39:21

Eclipse. Be specially designed glasses provide

39:23

the necessary for. If

39:26

you want to use a telescope, binoculars, pork

39:28

hammered of you the sun you must place

39:30

or say solar cells are on those two

39:32

except during those hours if you don't have

39:35

he comes across as you can use an

39:37

indirect theory method like a pinhole productive make

39:39

a small hole in a piece of cardboard

39:41

or paper or use a colander. You can

39:44

even use your hands basically use any hollie

39:46

object and cast a shadow and a nearby

39:48

surface and check out the crescent shaped. If

39:50

you're not lucky enough to be near the

39:53

except maybe you're outside the U S, you

39:55

can still experience. old with nasa live

39:57

coverage on nasa plus april eighth

40:00

1 to 4 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. That

40:03

was a lot. Did we miss anything? I think

40:05

that covers it. You can find

40:07

all this information and more

40:09

at go.nasa.gov slash eclipse2024. Happy

40:12

viewing! This

40:18

is NASA's Curious Universe. This

40:20

episode was written and produced by Christian Elliott.

40:23

Our executive producer is Katie Conans. The

40:26

Curious Universe team includes Jacob Pinter,

40:28

Maddie Olson, and Michaela Sosby. Christopher

40:31

Kim is our show artist. Our

40:34

theme song was composed by Matt Russo and

40:36

Andrew Santaguida of System Sounds. Special

40:39

thanks to Marcellus Proctor, Julia Tilton,

40:41

Scott Swofford, and NASA's Heliophysics

40:43

team. If you enjoyed

40:46

this episode of NASA's Curious Universe, please

40:48

let us know by leaving us a

40:50

review and sharing the show with a

40:52

friend. And remember, you can follow NASA's

40:54

Curious Universe in your favorite podcast app to

40:56

get a notification each time we post

40:58

a new episode. This

41:04

is an official NASA podcast.