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So as

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the moon orbits the earth,
sometimes it passes between the earth

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and the sun
and when it does that, we get eclipses.

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Right now we're having an annular eclipse,
which means it's coming between us

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on the earth and the sun,
but it's not totally blocking out the main

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disk of the sun.

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And that means that as the moon passes
in front of the sun, we'll see the sun

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peaking around the outside
in this ring of fire.

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in an annular eclipse.

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The moon doesn't totally block out
the main disk of the sun.

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And so you still see the sun
peeking around.

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It gives us that ring of fire effect.

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And so it's never safe to look directly
at any phase of the annular eclipse.

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But during a total solar eclipse,
the moon fully

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blocks out
that bright main disk of the sun.

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And then we get to see the much fainter
corona around it,

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the atmosphere of the sun.

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And that's part of the solar
eclipse totality.

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When the main disk of the sun is totally
blocked,

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is safe to view with your naked eye.

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The annular eclipse is totally safe.

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We never look directly at the sun,

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but there are safe ways
to view the annular eclipse.

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If you have solar approved glasses,
you can wear those.

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You can also view the annular eclipse
indirectly

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through a pinhole camera.

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On April 8th of 2024,
It's going to be a total solar eclipse

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that comes across the United States, up
through Texas, up and out through Maine.

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A total solar eclipse happens
when the moon comes between the earth

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and the sun.

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And it totally blocks
the main disk of the sun.

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And then we get to see the atmosphere
of the sun called the the solar corona.

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That's the part of the sun that I study.

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And so I am so excited to actually get
to see it from here on Earth.

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I am so excited

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for the total solar eclipse
where we get to see the sun's corona,

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the atmosphere of the sun, because
the moon blocks the main body of the sun.

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The corona is the part of the sun
that I study

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and I'm so excited to actually
get to see it with my own eyes.

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NASA makes artificial eclipses
all the time with its spacecraft

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so that we can observe the corona

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all the time and not have to wait for
the moon to come between us and the earth.

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But of course it's just different
getting to actually stand on earth

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and actually witness it with your own eye.

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We are so excited about the heliophysics
big year.

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This is a big year

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kicking off with the annular eclipse
going through the total solar eclipse

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and all the way until Parker Solar probe
one of our NASA's missions

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until Parker
Solar probes closest approach to the sun.

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During this time we have many citizen
scientist projects that people all over

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the world can get involved with to study
the sun, to help study the aurora.

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So many projects for anybody
in the community to get involved with.

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during eclipses 

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We have a unique opportunity

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to study the connectivity
between the sun and the Earth.

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How the sun really influences the Earth.

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One way is as the moon

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blocks
the sunlight from the sun onto the earth,

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we can watch how that impacts
the Earth's atmosphere

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and the special layer of the Earth's
atmosphere called the ionosphere.

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This is a special conducting
layer of the atmosphere, and it impacts

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our radio waves so we can watch how
that little patch of reduced sunlight,

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how that how the ionosphere
responds to that.

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if you're outside

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the path of totality
or outside the main path of annularity.

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You can still see a partial eclipse.

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So a partial eclipse happens
when the moon passes

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between where you're standing on the earth
and the sun.

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But it doesn't totally block out
or come between us and the sun.

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And then the safe way to watch
that is indirectly

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with a pinhole projector or with special
solar viewing approved glasses,

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So the sun goes

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through an 11 year cycle
where the magnetic field concentrations

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on the sun and the explosions
from those magnetic field concentrations

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increase in frequency
and then decrease in frequency.

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So right now we're headed to solar maximum
where the number of explosions

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is increasing in frequency.

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We call that solar maximum.

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We're safe here on the earth.

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But of course

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our satellites can experience adverse
effects from these solar storms.

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And one of the beautiful things
we get to see here on earth are

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the aurora borealis.