International Scientists Gravitate Around Total Eclipse of the Sun

NASA scientists visit Libya, Turkey for March 29 event

International teams of astronomers will bring a rare, four-minute total eclipse of the sun to people around the world March 29, with webcasts, podcasts and live video feeds provided by NASA.

Solar eclipses happen when the moon passes in front of the sun. They do not happen very often because the tilted orbits of the sun, moon and Earth make their alignment rare.

Only about once a year, when the moon passes directly in front of the sun and seems from Earth's perspective to be the same size or larger than the sun, is there a total eclipse somewhere on Earth.

In 2006, the eclipse path begins in Brazil and extends across the Atlantic Ocean, northern Africa and Central Asia, where it ends at sunset in northern Mongolia.

Only those in a narrow corridor that crosses half of the Earth will be able to observe the event directly.

A partial eclipse will be seen along a much broader path that includes the northern two thirds of Africa, Europe and Central Asia.

SUN SCIENCE IN LIBYA, TURKEY

The best visibility will be in the desert of Libya, and for the first time, NASA and Libyan scientists will conduct joint scientific activities as they observe and study the eclipse.

Five NASA scientists will view the eclipse with their Libyan counterparts near the southwest city of Awbari, at Waw Enamous, an inactive desert volcano.

In Side, Turkey, just before the eclipse, three astronomers from the University of California-Berkeley will take the stage in a 1,900-year-old Roman amphitheater to introduce local students and the public to the science and lore of solar eclipses.

Side (pronounced SEE-deh) is located about an hour outside Antalya in southwestern Turkey and sits on a peninsula jutting into the Mediterranean Sea.

The day of the eclipse, the scientists will set up telescopes in the amphitheater and distribute sun-safe eclipse glasses to 2,500 people expected to crowd into the event.

Scientists and educators from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland will participate in activities before the eclipse - some of them will be podcast by NASA Goddard and the Exploratorium - including visits to local schools.

The eclipse will be webcast live, thanks to the support of NASA and The Exploratorium in San Francisco. The program is part of the yearly "Sun-Earth Day" celebration sponsored by NASA's Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum.

Sun-Earth Day is celebrated every year to promote better understanding of how the sun interacts with the Earth and other planets in the solar system.

The 2006 theme, "Eclipse: In a Different Light," shows how eclipses have inspired people to observe and understand the sun-Earth-moon system.

More information about Earth-Sun Day is available on NASA's Web site.

TOTAL ECLIPSE

Total solar eclipses are of special interest to astronomers, because it is the only time the sun's corona - the outermost part of the sun's atmosphere - can be seen from Earth's surface.

Observers can detect and measure properties of the sun's outer atmosphere, including temperature, density and chemical composition, when the moon blocks the light of the disk.

During the March 29 eclipse, scientists will try to detect the direction and velocity of flows of matter in the corona that are organized by the sun's magnetic fields.

Careful measurements and experiments during a total eclipse can help unravel connections between the sun and Earth.

The 2006 eclipse is special because the total phase will last more than four minutes at the center of the path. Most last only a minute or two.

The next total solar eclipse will be August 1, 2008. It will be seen in northern Canada, Greenland, Siberia, Mongolia and northern China. It will last about two minutes.

Live webcasts and NASA TV coverage from Turkey begin at 1000 GMT March 29. For those who miss the eclipse, a video link will be available afterward on the Exploratorium Web site.

Source: U.S. Department of State

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