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The temperature dropped about 10 degrees, a cool breeze sent chills across shoulders and down spines as an eerie darkness crept over the sky in Indianapolis on Monday afternoon. The giant dinosaurs bursting out of The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis (the world’s largest children’s museum) were safely prepared with huge solar protective glasses; but the humans had a challenging time describing the breathtaking display and what they felt as the moon completely blocked the sun for close to four minutes shortly after 3 p.m. EST in Indianapolis. There was a powerful sense of awe, wonder and disbelief. Then just as the moon covered the sun and a halo of light peeked out around it, cheers erupted as visitors celebrated what many are calling a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Some of the top scientists in the world also expressed their fascination with the celestial occurrence. NASA’s Joshua Schlieder visited the museum to talk about the Roman Space Telescope, “Even though I work at NASA and talk about space all the time, it brings it all home. You’re part of the experience of the Earth, the Moon, the Sun and their dance. The experience is like none other.” NASA Gateway Deputy Program Manager Holly Ridings agrees, “Everyone in the entire world is thinking and talking about science. It’s a unifying event for the entire world, and it’s amazing where everybody can look up and see the same thing and you realize that here on Earth—that we’re all in this together,” said Ridings. “It’s all centered around learning about the solar system and going beyond and about what we’re going to do in our lifetime and the next generation to go out and work around the Moon, Mars and beyond.”
“Eclipses are very useful for science,” said Jane Rigby, senior project scientist, Webb Space Telescope at NASA. “It’s our only chance to study the inner atmosphere of the sun called the corona, which is a mysterious place. It’s a million degrees hot. We don’t know how the sun makes it that hot, the rest of the sun isn’t that hot. So, there’s neat science to do. Because it affects our solar wind – which affects life on Earth. It affects whether or not our cell phones are working, if there’s a big electrical storm. So, we care. NASA’s going to be working hard during the eclipse,” she said. “But I’m here because eclipses are amazing and they’re beautiful and they connect us to the universe. It gives us a chance to realize that we’re on a planet going around a star and we’re in space…and it’s magical!”
While staying in Indianapolis, the scientists visited the exhibit that revolves around the International Space Station (ISS). Beyond Spaceship Earth is an interactive gallery that helps visitors understand what it is really like to eat, work and play in space. Families discover how astronauts perform scientific experiments in space and they watch NASA videos, which show astronauts exercising along with videos of Earth from above. There are even humorous videos showing astronauts having fun tumbling through the ISS and tossing M&Ms into blobs of water that are floating instead of splashing on to a flat surface.
The entire experience of checking out what the ISS is like, talking to real NASA scientists and witnessing a total solar eclipse by being in the path of totality represented a wonderful opportunity for NASA and The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis to inspire and engage children and grownups in a unique way. Apparently, it worked as one little boy raced across the museum yelling, “This is the best day of my life!”
Those who are wondering what The Children’s Museum is doing with leftover eclipse glasses will be happy to know they are being recycled. The museum is donating its unused solar protective glasses to schools in Latin America so that children there will be able to experience the same amazement with the October 2024 annular eclipse happening there. You can do the same. Visit https://eclipse23.com/pages/donate-eclipse-glasses to learn more.
