Solar Eclipses on Earth and Beyond — Captivating Videos from NASA HEAT

In preparation for the 2023 annular and 2024 total solar eclipses, the NASA Heliophysics Education Activation Team (NASA HEAT) partnered with Neptune Studios to create a total of 8 eclipse-related videos as part of the MinuteEarth (ME) and MinutePhysics (MP) video series. These short, illustrated stories introduce viewers to eclipse science, history and culture, orbital mechanics, weird animal behaviors, and eclipses out of this world and have accumulated more than 4 million views. A virtual lab from MinuteEarth called Eclipse Explorer is also a wonderful opportunity for learners of all ages to see solar eclipses from other planets in our solar system.

A couple of comments from viewers:

"Weird Things Animals Do During Eclipses" Video – "I was in an Oregon forest during totality, and wolves all around us miles away started howling. It was a transcendent experience." (4.8K likes)

"The LAST Eclipse in History" Video – "I would argue that now IS the golden age for solar eclipses! 52% annular vs 48% full implies to me that the average distance of eclipses (or the Earth-to-moon vs Earth-to-sun distance ratio) is just right for the moon to cover the sun but not the corona. The moon being closer would of course give us more full eclipses, but a moon too close that it also blocks hide the corona would also be disappointing." (1.7K likes)

Watch:

The NASA HEAT project is supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number 80NSSC21K1560 and is part of NASA's Science Activation Portfolio. Learn more about NASA HEAT: https://science.nasa.gov/science-activation-team/nasa-heliophysics-education-activation-team