What can we learn from an eclipse? UAB physics professor explains

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - The Total Solar Eclipse, or the Great American Eclipse as we like to call it, is happening in the United States April 8 and it will be a very rare event. So rare, it won’t happen again until 2044.

We will still need eye protection to view the eclipse over Alabama, with 80% to 90% blockage, but it is still an incredible experience. A rare moment in time, a rare moment for new understanding.

Dr. Younas Khan is a professor of physics at UAB and specializes in the topics of planetary science and comets. While there is the lesson of knowing how this rare event can happen, Dr. Khan says there’s so much we can learn from this rare alignment of the sun, moon, and the Earth.

“We will get a very nice view, especially of the corona of the sun, which is the outer atmosphere, which is not available generally during regular times because it is so faint,” says Dr. Khan. “There are some scientific aspects we can only study when the sun is blocked, and especially the corona, and the solar wind, especially when it is coming out of the sun. We exactly really don’t know how it works.”

So, if the sun is blocked that means we have more opportunities to understand the sun. But it is also an opportunity to learn more about the behavior of our own atmosphere.

“Since the sun will be blocked there will be a drop in temperature and there will also be changes in the outer layers of our atmosphere,” says Dr. Khan. “And as we know, outer layers of our atmosphere play a big role in our communication. So, there might be some communication glitches and we won’t know until we study it.”

And scientists will not only be studying what is happening above but also what is happening in our surroundings.

“Birds might think it is night and the crickets might start chirping; and there might be some kinds of creatures, especially rare species of bats, that may become active,” says Dr. Khan. “So, a lot of these scientists, who are studying animal and human behavior, will also be on the lookout for the effects of the solar eclipse on humans and other species.

Those in the path of totality will only have three to four precious minutes to gather data. While it may be a brief moment and memorable moment in time for so many, it will be a moment that will last for months and years as scientists learn from the data.

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