The absence of the sun  

By: Felix Lemm

On April 8th, millions of New Yorkers witnessed a once-in-a-lifetime experience. In the middle of the day, the moon blocked the sun's light and turned a sunny day into literal shadows. In an interview with Mathew Gue from 704  he remarked “It was 9 PM for a few minutes.  For most people, this is a major view however for scientists, this is a scientific wonder allowing them to acquire knowledge not feasible at any other time. In fact, the next solar eclipse in the U.S. will be in 10 years and the last one was seven years ago making these events even rarer.

Oskar Allen-Parr, a student from 805 went to Plattsburgh New York to watch the Solar Eclipse. He said: “When you are in the absence of something that you take for granted, it shows you the importance it has in your life.”  

The opportunities given by Solar Eclipse were put to their paces when scientists started to test past scientific advancements. On May 29, 1919, when Einstein’s four-year-old Theory of General Relativity was put to its first test during a total solar eclipse. By measuring how the images of stars shift when the sun is close by. 

During solar eclipses, most of the light from the sun gets blocked allowing scientists to see the corona. The corona is the outermost layer of the sun reaching temperatures up to millions of degrees Celsius. It is visible during a total solar eclipse as a pearly white halo surrounding the dark silhouette of the Moon. Its behavior influences the sun's magnetic field with solar flares. Solar flares are bursts of energy and radiation emitted from the sun's surface caused by a sudden release of magnetic energy that has built up in the solar atmosphere. These events are equivalent to releasing millions of atomic bombs exploding simultaneously. 

During these flares, various forms of electromagnetic radiation, including X-rays, ultraviolet light, and streams of energetic particles, such as protons and electrons, are released. On Earth, this can interfere with radio communications and with satellite operations. The flares can also create events called coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which are massive eruptions of plasma and magnetic fields from the Sun's corona. 

Because of these extreme solar events that occur, regular viewers of the solar eclipse must wear glasses. Most of the light is blacked by the moon, but light still reaches Earth as seen by the white streak around the sun. Because there is less light reaching Earth, this tricks our eyes into believing that there is no harm in looking into the sun; however, within a few minutes, they can become seriously damaged. 

Not only can solar eclipses be used to study the happenings of the sun, but it can also be used to learn about our very own atmosphere. Using a phenomenon known as "shadow bands," which are faint, wavy lines that sometimes appear on the ground just before and after totality. 

Oskar said: “Solar eclipses can show us what the world is like when such a powerful element of a landscape is gone.” 

The total solar eclipse can provide information about atmospheric turbulence and the presence of trace gasses. This data can be used for a variety of use cases, one of them monitoring the health of our atmosphere.