Solar eclipse 2024: Millions in North America will view what promises to be a blockbuster - BBC News

How lucky is that? The US will witness its second total solar eclipse in seven years on 8 April.

8 hours agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, Getty Images/St Louis Post-DispatchImage caption, The good people of Carbondale get to do it all over again, and for longerBy Jonathan AmosScience correspondent@BBCAmosHow lucky can the residents of Carbondale, Illinois, be?

Celestial mechanics says any one spot on the Earth's surface should experience a total solar eclipse only once every 375 years, on average.

The 30,000 residents of the Midwestern city will probably chuckle at that statistic because they are about to witness the Moon block out the Sun's disc for the second time in just seven years.

And what's more, the upcoming 8 April eclipse will be even better than the one they got to see in 2017. The sky will go pitch black for 4 minutes and 9 seconds, nearly double what happened last time.

Image source, Getty ImagesAs many as 200,000 people are expected to flood prime viewing locations in southern Illinois for The Great American Eclipse, Part II. But this will be true, also, all along the eclipse path, from Mexico's Pacific coast to Canada's Atlantic seaboard. The upcoming event is set to be a blockbuster.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68597945

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