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The complete solar eclipse in April promises to be a scientific jackpot, thanks to new spacecraft and telescopes—and cosmic chance.
The moon will be extremely close to Earth, resulting in a long and intense period of darkness, while the sun should be more active, with the possibility of dramatic plasma explosions.
Then there’s totality’s densely populated corridor, which runs from Mexico to the United States to Canada.
It provides an opportunity for scientists to conduct experiments to better comprehend our world.
Toby Dittrich, a physics professor at Portland Community College, aims to carry out a modern version of the Eddington experiment during the eclipse.
During the 1919 total solar eclipse, a team of scientists off the coast of Africa conducted the first experiment to verify Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity.
“In 1919, Eddington’s experiment proved Einstein’s theory because the deflections of the stars were twice as large as expected by Newton,” Dittrich said.
During totality, it is feasible to photograph the stars around the sun. The experiment has been replicated numerous times since 1919.
Scientists got a taste of what was to come during the 2017 complete solar eclipse, which spanned from Oregon to South Carolina.
This time, the moon is closer to Earth, resulting in longer periods of darkness and a larger course.
“The purpose of continuing to conduct this experiment on April 8th is that we can do it immeasurably better. We can acquire a lot more info. We can collect data close to the sun’s surface, where the bending is strongest,” Dittrich says.
The eclipse in April will begin in the Pacific and land in Mazatlan, Mexico, before moving up across Texas and 14 other states before crossing into Canada and leaving into the Atlantic at Newfoundland. Those outside the 115-mile (185-kilometer) path will see a partial eclipse.
