2 min read

Solar Eclipse Data Story Helps the Public Visualize the April 2024 Total Eclipse

The NASA Science Activation program's Cosmic Data Stories team, led by Harvard University in Cambridge, MA, released a new Data Story for the April 8, 2024 Total Solar Eclipse. A Data Story is an interactive, digital showcase of new science imagery, including ideas for exploration and scientific highlights shared in a brief video and narrative text. In this Data Story, learners everywhere were able to view what the eclipse would look like from any location, including the ability to speed up or slow down time to watch what would happen as the Moon moved in front of the Sun. Users were also able to catch the ethereal glow of the Sun's corona during totality and learn why we do not usually see the corona. They could also see what percentage of the Sun would be eclipsed at various locations. An educator guide and exploration guide make this Data Story an easy activity to fit in to any classroom. It is being used by students from late elementary through early college, and as of mid-April 2024, 23,000 learners from all 50 US states and outside the USA have accessed the Total Eclipse Data Story.

Explore the Total Eclipse Data Story

The Cosmic Data Stories project is supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number 80NSSC21M0002 and is part of NASA’s Science Activation Portfolio. Learn more about how Science Activation connects NASA science experts, real content, and experiences with community leaders to do science in ways that activate minds and promote deeper understanding of our world and beyond: https://science.nasa.gov/learn

A smiling 8-yo student holds a digital tablet that is displaying the Total Eclipse 2024 Data Story. On the tablet screen, a map shows a red dot at the location selected by the student. Underneath the map, a view of the Sun and Moon shows the Moon almost completely overlapping the Sun, with a sliver of the Sun still visible.
A third-grade student in Maine explores what the April 8, 2024 Solar Eclipse will look like from her town.

Share

Details

Last Updated
Aug 14, 2024
Editor
NASA Science Editorial Team

Related Terms

Explore More

4 min read

Going Back-to-School with NASA Data

As students head back to school, teachers have a new tool that brings NASA satellite data down to their earthly classrooms. For over 50 years of observing Earth, NASA’s satellites have collected petabytes of global science data (that’s millions and millions of gigabytes) – with terabytes more coming in by the day. Since 2004, the My […]

Article2 hours ago
A model of NASA’s Voyager spacecraft
5 min read

Voyager 1 Team Accomplishes Tricky Thruster Swap

Article6 days ago
Middle school students and camp counselors standing in front of a tree smiling.
2 min read

NASA Summer Camp Inspires Future Climate Leaders

Article1 week ago
Keep Exploring

Discover More Topics From NASA

James Webb Space Telescope

The image is divided horizontally by an undulating line between a cloudscape forming a nebula along the bottom portion and a comparatively clear upper portion. Speckled across both portions is a starfield, showing innumerable stars of many sizes. The smallest of these are small, distant, and faint points of light. The largest of these appear larger, closer, brighter, and more fully resolved with 8-point diffraction spikes. The upper portion of the image is blueish, and has wispy translucent cloud-like streaks rising from the nebula below. The orangish cloudy formation in the bottom half varies in density and ranges from translucent to opaque. The stars vary in color, the majority of which have a blue or orange hue. The cloud-like structure of the nebula contains ridges, peaks, and valleys – an appearance very similar to a mountain range. Three long diffraction spikes from the top right edge of the image suggest the presence of a large star just out of view.

Perseverance Rover

Parker Solar Probe

Juno