Two NASA Briefings on the Total Solar Eclipse of August 21, 2017

On June 21, representatives from NASA, other federal agencies, and science organizations, provided important viewing safety, travel and science information on the August 21, 2017 total solar eclipse. This eclipse will be the first in 99 years that will cross the entire continental United States.

Two briefings were held at the Newseum in Washington. The briefings aired live on NASA Television and streamed on the agency’s website.

Over the course of 100 minutes, 14 states across the United States will experience more than two minutes of darkness in the middle of the day. Additionally, a partial eclipse will be viewable across all of North America. The eclipse will provide a unique opportunity to study the sun, Earth, moon and their interaction because of the eclipse’s long path over land coast to coast. Scientists will be able to take ground-based and airborne observations over a period of an hour and a half to complement the wealth of data and images provided by space assets.

The June 21 briefings were:

Logistics Briefing

• Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington
• Vanessa Griffin, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Satellite and Product Operations in Suitland, Maryland
• Brian Carlstrom, deputy associate director of Natural Resource Stewardship and Science at the National Park Service in Washington
• Martin Knopp, associate administrator of the Office of Operations in the Federal Highway Administration at the U.S. Department of Transportation in Washington

YouTube Link Here

Science Briefing

• Thomas Zurbuchen
• Angela Des Jardins, principal investigator of the Eclipse Ballooning Project at Montana State University, Bozeman
• Angela Speck, professor of astrophysics and director of astronomy at the University of Missouri, Columbia
• Dave Boboltz, program director of solar physics in the Division of Astronomical Sciences at the National Science Foundation in Arlington, Virginia
• Linda Shore, executive director of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific in San Francisco
• Matt Penn, astronomer at the National Solar Observatory in Tucson, Arizona

YouTube Link Here

For more information on the eclipse, and how to safely view it, visit:

eclipse2017.nasa.gov

www.nasa.gov/eclipse

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