Current:Home > MarketsThe real April 2024 total solar eclipse happens inside the path of totality. What is that? -Streamline Finance
The real April 2024 total solar eclipse happens inside the path of totality. What is that?
View
Date:2025-04-26 06:38:42
As the April 2024 total solar eclipse approaches, you may have heard folks talking about the "path of totality." But what is it, exactly? And what is totality?
First, some background: The April 8, 2024, eclipse will be a total solar eclipse, according to NASA. It will be the last total solar eclipse visible from the lower 48 states until 2044.
But what's key is that "only in the path will you see what's special about this eclipse — totality," Rick Fienberg of the American Astronomical Society told Space.com.
What is totality?
Totality is when the moon totally blocks the sun during a total solar eclipse.
What is the path of totality?
The path of totality is the area where people on Earth can see the moon completely cover the sun as the moon's shadow falls upon them. Space.com describes it as "the cone-shaped inner (umbral) shadow of the moon projected onto the Earth's surface."
Solar eclipse warnings pile up:Watch out for danger in the sky, on the ground on April 8
To view all of the stages of a total solar eclipse, you must watch it from somewhere along that path of totality, NASA said. Viewers outside this narrow, roughly 115-mile wide path will only see a partial eclipse of the sun.
Total solar eclipses are visible every 400 years from any one place, the Solar Observatory said.
Where is the path of totality in the US?
The path in the U.S. extends along a narrow stretch of land from Texas to Maine.
Not every place along the path of totality will provide the same viewing experience, in part because of cloud cover. Here's an early look at what areas are usually the most and least cloudy:
What happens during totality?
The sky will darken, as if it were dawn or dusk. "You may be able to see a 360-degree sunset. You may also be able to see some particularly bright stars or planets in the darkened sky. The air temperature will drop and often an eerie silence will settle around you," NASA said.
People along the path of totality will be able to see the sun’s corona, or outer atmosphere, which is usually obscured by the bright face of the sun.
And also this important reminder: Eclipse glasses are required for the eclipse if you're looking at it from outside the path of totality. Inside the path, you need the glasses for the moments before and after totality, when the moon is not totally blocking the sun.
veryGood! (51769)
Related
- The company planning a successor to Concorde makes its first supersonic test
- Here are the top 10 creators on the internet, according to Forbes
- Controversial singer Matty Healy of The 1975 tells fans band will go on 'indefinite hiatus'
- Black musician says he was falsely accused of trafficking his own children aboard American Airlines flight
- US wholesale inflation accelerated in November in sign that some price pressures remain elevated
- Woman pleads guilty to calling in hoax bomb threat at Boston Children’s Hospital
- Judge acquits 2 Chicago police officers of charges stemming from shooting of unarmed man
- StandBy mode turns your iPhone into a customizable display clock with iOS 17
- Global Warming Set the Stage for Los Angeles Fires
- Traveling with Milley: A reporter recalls how America’s top soldier was most at home with his troops
Ranking
- 'Most Whopper
- Leaders of European Union’s Mediterranean nations huddle in Malta to discuss migration
- A North Carolina woman was killed and left along the highway. 33 years later, she's been IDed
- Six young activists suing 32 countries for failing to address climate change
- Skins Game to make return to Thanksgiving week with a modern look
- California man who shot two sheriff’s deputies in revenge attack convicted of attempted murder
- Texas death row inmate with 40-year mental illness history ruled not competent to be executed
- Kourtney Kardashian Slams Narcissist Kim After Secret Not Kourtney Group Chat Reveal
Recommendation
Selena Gomez engaged to Benny Blanco after 1 year together: 'Forever begins now'
Phillies star Bryce Harper tosses helmet in stands after being ejected by Angel Hernandez
Peruvian man arrested for sending more than 150 hoax bomb threats to US schools, airports
'Kill Black people': Elon Musk's Tesla sued for racial abuse at electric vehicle plant
Head of the Federal Aviation Administration to resign, allowing Trump to pick his successor
People's Choice Country Awards 2023 Red Carpet Fashion: See Every Look as the Stars Arrive
Trump says Mar-a-Lago is worth $1.8 billion. Not long ago, his own company thought that was over $1.7 billion too high.
AP Week in Pictures: Global | Sept. 8-14, 2023