[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e [Music] [Music] when you experience an eclipse you feel that connection with space Oh my God oh look at the race structure the universe is out there and it's affecting us we are in space and here it comes there's the diamond ring and that is the most spectacular [Applause] [Music] site if you haven't seen it you haven't seen anything hello everyone I'm acting NASA press secretary Faith Macky and thank you f
or joining us this morning as we look forward to the upcoming total solar eclipse on April 8th during today's press conference you'll learn more about what to expect during the eclipse how you can participate how NASA and government agencies will use the eclipse to advance science and how to view it safely today's participants include NASA administrator Bill Nelson NASA Deputy Administrator Pam melroy NASA associate administrator Jim free director of Noah's office of space weather observations E
l Saed talat and NASA eclipse program manager Kelly krek after remarks from each of our participants we will gladly take questions from the media now I'll hand it over to administrator Nelson to kick us off good morning before we get started we were supposed to have the Federal Highway administrator shayene bat with us this morning you've probably seen the emergency that's happening in Baltimore our thoughts are certainly with them our pray s are with the people and the families involved I've of
ten said that at Nasa our mission is for all humanity and that's because space brings us together there's no better proof than moments like this a total solar ellipse it's a moment when millions of people ACR across North America will look to the heavens as the moon passes in front in between the sun of the and the Earth and it's a rare sight that we haven't seen in seven years and unusual things start to happen as the normal rhythms of Earth are disrupted when you're seeing this Eclipse you oug
ht to observe this as the day appears to turn to dusk and then dark people have heard Birds stop singing they've seen giraffes suddenly begin to gallop roosters start crowing and crickets chirp so watch for these unusual ual behaviors and we encourage you to help NASA observe the sights and sounds around you eclipses have a special power they move people to feel a kind of reverence for the beauty of our universe their power is not only to unify us on Earth but to further science and Discovery in
1919 Albert Einstein's theory of gravitational bending was proven when scientists measured how Stars shift when the sun is blocked out by the moon and today over a century later a total solar eclipse still brings great opportunity and science Pam is going to share a little bit more about how NASA missions will use this rare moment to advance science safety is always NASA's number one priority and that remains true for this solar solar eclipse make sure you have the proper eye protection like th
e eclipse glasses and as you look at the heavens on April the 8th when the eclipse starts please please put those glasses on now I'm going to hand it over to Pam thank you sir yeah this is such an a inspiring moment I remember the first time that I learned that this is um it's kind of a very rare thing that it just so happens that our moon is at the right size and distance to cause this effect here on Earth and I I I hope that the awe that you were talking about Sir is uh completely you know und
erstood by everybody who gets to experience it because it's really a miracle of our universe of course we're super excited I mean we are incredibly excited and have been building up to this moment anticipating the solar eclipse and the incredible scientific opportunities which it's my joy to talk to you about today at Nasa we explore the unknown and Air in space and so we're always looking at pushing that Cutting Edge of science we really want to learn more about the universe and our place in it
the thing that's so unique about a solar eclipse is that it's an opportunity to look at three celestial bodies the Earth the moon and the sun in entirely different ways than we usually do and our scientists are going to take full advantage of this Celestial event to get invaluable data one focal point is definitely the sun's atmosphere or the corona so this is a very elusive region and it can be viewed during a solar eclipse in a very special way it's key to understanding fundamental questions
about how heat and energy are transferred out into the solar wind which contributes to our understanding not just of Solar Dynamics but also how solar flares and the solar wind will AFF affect life here on Earth things are happening with the corona that we don't fully understand and the eclipse gives us a unique opportunity to collect data that may give insights into the future of our star and it just so happens where it's solar maximum so the chance we're going to see something amazing is very
high we're also leveraging this unique opportunity to look at the effect of the sun on the Earth's atmosphere particularly the ionosphere that's the electrically charged part of our atmosphere that can act as a conduit for many of our Communications and navigation signals so understanding how solar energy affects the ionosphere is crucial for predicting and mitigating potential disruptions to our technology by observing the temporary decrease in sunlight at a much quicker time scale than we expe
rienced for sunrise and sunset we're going to gain Insight specifically into how sunlight affects the ionosphere but as I mentioned there are three bodies involved to make this eclipse happen and thanks to highly precise mapping of the Moon from our lunar reconnaissance Orbiter we can actually unlock new knowledge during an eclipse studying the moon's silhouette against the sun lets us learn more about the sun itself allowing us to study solar active regions such as the chromosphere very hard to
see with the traditional uh uh coronograph we're also going to make use of the moon's terrain to study the sun's shape and size our detailed knowledge of the Moon also allows scientists to predict the shape of the moon's Shadow on Earth better than ever before so in essence we are thrilled about this opportunity to conduct amazing valuable science during the eclipse and we want everyone to join us in this exciting opportunity thank you thank you and good morning we're just a few days away from
witnessing a cosmic Masterpiece where Noah satellites will provide the nation and the world with a front row seat to the celestial wonder the solar ultraviolet imagers or suie aboard Noah's go 16 and Go's 18 satellites will capture the moon's disc as it passes in front of the sun and the advanced Baseline imagers on these satellites will track the moon's Shadow as it moves across the path of totality the video here shows the Moon Shadow from the annular e clipse in October Noah and its Partners
at the North Carolina Institute of climate studies also provided this interactive map which shows the climatological percentage of clear sky during the eclipse at all these different locations to help people plan their viewing experience once the eclipse is over Noah and NASA will continue preparing for the upcoming launch of the gozu satellite scheduled for June 25th it will carry the nation's first operational coronograph which is a solar telescope that blocks the disc of the sun with this pow
erful instrument we will see the fainter outer atmosphere of the sun called the corona where extreme space weather events originate an additional coronograph will be on the swifel lrange 1 also known as swifel L1 Observatory which is scheduled to launch next year in 2025 this snow satellite will be stationed a million miles from Earth and positioned toward the sun where where it will act as an upstream buoy capturing data from incoming space weather events both of these coronagraphs will give us
an unprecedented view of the Sun but what you may not know is that in a total eclipse we see the Corona in a way that not even coronagraphs can fully capture this is why we call it Nature's chronograph we look forward to getting this unique inside look from nature on the types of measurements we need on a continuous basis for space weather forecasts and warnings thank you thank you elsaed good morning my name is Kelly coric and I am the NASA eclipse program manager excited to discuss the ways N
ASA is using the solar eclipse for scientific discovery in addition to our over 20 satellites in NASA's heliophysics system Observatory that regularly observe the sun we'll be using Rockets planes and balloons and on the ground observations to optimize the science Return of the eclipse as the previous speakers mentioned the Sun and its effect on the earth called space weather is one of the motivating factors in our study of the Sun and although the focus will be on our Sun's Corona or outer hot
atmosphere as the moon blocks the bright disc of the Sun the eclipse also gives us the unique opportunity to research our Earth's reaction to that sudden loss of sunshine so starting with our Eclipse rocket experiment APAP is a series of three rockets launched from wp's Flight Facility to explore the layers of the Earth's atmosphere called the ionosphere so again that layer is important as it's the one that our communication signals pass through disturbances in this layer can cause issues with G
PS and Communications the series of roets will sample the layer of the atmosphere to see how it changes with that sudden day night change of the eclipse and that information can be fed into models for us to better understand the Earth's atmosphere NASA's WB 57 plane with two solar experiments and one atmospheric experiment aboard will chase the eclipse getting an additional 2 minutes of totality and deeper understanding of the sun and the Earth's atmosphere so dozens of student teams will launch
balloons along the eclipse path before during and after the eclipse to get measurements of the Earth's atmosphere in addition a NASA team will be using a balloon to study the weather of the eclipse now Citizen science is a way for everyone to join the NASA science exploration during the eclipse I'm highlighting just three of the over 40 Projects that folks can participate in the first project is Sun Sketcher it utilizes a smartphone to help understand the size and the shape of the sun better th
e second project is focused on the reaction of our atmosphere to the eclipse it's called Globe Observer this app has you record things like temperature to understand the effect of the eclipse on the atmosphere and clouds the third project is Eclipse soundscape that you will explore the reaction of wildlife on the eclipse and the sounds that you will experience during it so these are just a few of the ways to engage with the eclipse and NASA science the eclipse is not just a stunning visual exper
ience and I hope you will join us in these discoveries thank you now we'll hear from NASA associate administrator Jim free about how NASA is bringing the excitement of the solar eclipse to you with a few safety reminders thanks Faith uh well I don't know about you but uh I remember where I was during the last uh total solar eclipse and I'm really excited about this one and I didn't even understand all the science Nikki Fox will probably hold me accountable for that um that um uh so I'm sorry uh
I think the wrong uh remarks up thank you so much for joining us here today um I I appreciate the opportunity to kind of share with you some of the uh things to be safe about and and I joined the administrator and the condolences to uh everyone affected you know during the eclipse uh we want to make sure that that we're uh not relying on our uh our standard uh lights on our cars we want to make sure that we're uh looking out for the pedestrians uh please don't just stop on the side of the road u
m it's really important to make sure that we stay focused on uh everyone around us people are probably going to be stopping so be careful um you know I want to make sure also that we highlight the importance of the the science that everyone can be inspired by by the eclipse um it's important to look at all the science we do at Nasa uh I think when we look to the heavens we're inspired everyone's going to be looking to the heavens with their glasses on in this case um but when you think about the
power of the Sun what we're doing with uh other celestial bodies where we're blocking out the sun with coronagraphs in the future to look at the habitable worlds around those that's the inspiration that we can all take away from this so I'll remind you of the safety of what we're doing the safety of what you need to be doing looking only with your glasses the safety of what you're doing while you're driving and then also what you need to remember about the inspiration that we can all take away
from this Eclipse with that let me turn it back over to Faith thank you all so much well that brings us to the Q&A portion of today's press conference we do have a few media here with us in the room as well as the phone lines uh I do ask that you please Focus your questions specifically to the solar eclipse and identify to whom your question is directed I'll start first to see if any media in the room have a question before we kick it over to the phone lines and if so we have some mics here in t
he room for you hi there Karina Capa Bianca with Spectrum news uh just a question for the administrator uh can you speak speak a little bit about how NASA's technology has changed since the last uh solar eclipse well I'll give you U one very good example in 2018 we launched the Parker solar probe in addition to everything that we are going to learn from this experience in a week and a half uh when the moon moves in front uh of the sun shortly thereafter the Parker solar probe is going to go in a
nd touch the sun interestingly it's not going to touch the surface of the Sun although it's hard to determine what is the surface since there's no hard surface it's going to touch the hottest part which is outside of the sun sometimes at a million degrees and hopefully it's going to be positioned exactly right with its heat shield so that the heat shield is going to keep it at a relatively warm 87 degrees in its temperature while it is absolutely cooking on the outside of that that heat shield a
nd we're going to measure all kinds of new things that we've never known before because of the Parker solar probe uh so the technology has rapidly Advanced and we're going to be the beneficiaries of that thank you for your question uh I think we'll kick over to one of the questions on the phone uh we have Brett Tingley from space.com hi thank you very much for taking my question this is for anyone at Nasa I'm wondering will there any be any plans for the crew aboard the space station will they b
e able to watch the eclipse or is anything planned for them on Eclipse day thank you yes they will be able to see the eclipse but with a very unique vantage point so instead of looking up at the uh Moon casting the shadow they'll also be able to see the shadow racing a across the Earth uh so there is involvement and they will be able to participate in that way great thank you uh next question we have Jim seagull from NASA Tech hi everybody thanks for taking my question and U this is an exciting
event so thank you for uh briefing us uh this morning um could I think this is a question either for for Pam or for uh Kelly could you talk a little bit about how NASA predicts the path of the of the eclipse ahead of time in this case across diagonally across North America how was that done exactly this is great A great question and we have our scientists who work on this uh to predict these paths so these paths have been known uh for a while and they come in kind of Cycles um that are mathemati
cally able to tell when we're going to pass the moon in between the Earth and the Sun just right so you get that shadow cast um and based on that orientation of the Sun the Moon and the Earth um a and taking into account all the different tilts of everything were able to make those band predictions um and then NASA used the lro as Pam reference the lunar reconnaissance Orbiter uh and the data that was studied there to make that map even more precise uh because we now know the exact Peaks and val
leys on the moon and we're able to tell you just how far that shadow of the eclipse will uh will project onto the Earth thanks Kelly now we have Alan Bole on the phone from geekwire thank you I guess this question is for Kelly uh and it would relate to webcasts of the e Clips uh can you provide any more details on where those um web views will be coming from any other activities uh for example live activities is there kind of a base of operations for what NASA is doing in the path of the eclipse
thank you thank you yes there will be a live NASA broadcast from 1 to 4 on Eclipse day um that'll be on NASA plus and several other outlets um we will have telescope feeds as well as experts talking about the science of the eclipse um and other science that NASA does with the Sun as well as our exploration uh we will be located in uh 13 different sunspots so a sunspot on the sun is a place of intense magnetic activity and so we're going to have some intense activity around eclipses in these sun
spots along the path um and so those 13 spots are spread out um to also give us a a difference view so we have folks such as the Dallas Arboretum or our partnership with uh Noah and uh the National Science Foundation at the Dallas cotton bow um we are also going to places like national parks uh in Little Rock Arkansas or Hot Springs Arkansas um we will be uh in Russellville Arkansas Cleveland where NASA Glenn is uh in uh will be also one of those hotspots and the anchors of the uh broadcast and
the other anchor of the broadcast will be in kville Texas uh at a River Festival outside where I think uh I think a few of us will be attending as well thank you well that's all the questions that we have on the phone want to do one more last check for any questions in the room all right well that's all the time that we have for today thank you so much for joining us to learn more about the eclipse please visit go. nasa.gov Eclipse 2024 and no matter where you are on April 8th whether it's one o
f our sunspots or online we'll Hope you join in the fun and of course the science and please don't forget to wear your glasses thanks so much and have a great day conf not disconnected this time have a wonderful day [Music] [Music]
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