During a June 21 media briefing from the Newseum in Washington, representatives from NASA, other federal agencies, and science organizations discussed the opportunity for scientific study offered by the total solar eclipse that will cross the U.S. on August 21.
Over the course of 100 minutes, 14 states across the United States will experience more than two minutes of darkness in the middle of the day. Additionally, a partial eclipse will be viewable across all of North America. The eclipse will provide a unique opportunity to study the sun, Earth, moon and their interaction because of the eclipse’s long path over land coast to coast. Scientists will be able to take ground-based and airborne observations over a period of an hour and a half to complement the wealth of data and images provided by space assets.
