Four ways total solar eclipses helped us learn more about our universe

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Many mysteries about the Earth would have remained secret for much longer without observations from eclipses.

If we remember only one thing from watching a total solar eclipse, it should be that we are but a small dot in the boundless universe. Throughout history, eclipses have helped us understand our place in the cosmos.

Einstein’s theory explained not only how our solar system is bound together, but also predicted exotic phenomena like black holes. He proposed that gravity is not a force but a curving of space and time. Matter will distort time and space, where more massive objects will bend space around it more than a smaller objectTake a massive object like the sun, which should notably bend the space around it.

Scientists proposed that there must be another force pulling on Mercury, perhaps the pull of another planet. Calculations showed another planet inside the orbit of Mercury would explain its peculiar orbit, so researchers began searching for a planet called Vulcan. “It’s not ordinary iron, and that’s why they never saw it in the laboratory. It’s iron that’s at millions of degrees, much hotter than the surface of the sun,” said Thorstensen. The sun’s surface is about 9,940 degrees Fahrenheit. The corona is, literally, around 2 million degrees.the sun during the April 8 eclipse to understand this ongoing mystery, using telescope data collected from eclipse watchers along the path of totality.

 

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