When you’re within the path of totality for the April 8 complete photo voltaic eclipse, you will expertise a quick interval of darkness — totality — for a number of seconds or minutes. That is the one secure time to look immediately on the solar with out photo voltaic eclipse glasses. When you observe the solar’s corona throughout totality, you might even see dark-pink towers and loops of electrically charged plasma stretching many occasions the diameter of Earth into house. Over the last complete photo voltaic eclipse, in Australia on April 20, 2023, these “prominences” have been spectacular — and huge. These prominences will nearly definitely be on present throughout totality in North America on April 8, as a result of the solar is probably going on the peak of its 11-year photo voltaic cycle, often called photo voltaic most. Prominences will be seen for days — you possibly can take a look at them anytime you need, if you happen to use a hydrogen alpha telescope — however there are a few different uncommon phenomena you would possibly have the ability to witness throughout totality. This is what photo voltaic exercise to search for throughout the complete photo voltaic eclipse. Associated: 10 belongings you most likely did not know concerning the 2024 complete photo voltaic eclipse 1. Coronal mass ejectionCoronal mass ejectionFrequency: A number of occasions a monthDuration: A number of hoursAppearance: Stationary, spiral-like construction within the solar’s corona Earlier sightings: 1860 and 2020 One such phenomenon that may be seen is a coronal mass ejection (CME).”If we get fortunate, a CME will current itself as a twisted, spiral-like construction, excessive within the environment within the solar,” Ryan French, a photo voltaic physicist on the Nationwide Photo voltaic Observatory in Boulder, Colorado, and writer of “The Solar: Newbie’s Information to Our Native Star (Collins, 2023), informed House.com. A CME is a large ejection of magnetic discipline and plasma mass from the solar’s corona. It strikes quick however appears to be like stationary over a number of hours. “What this does imply, nevertheless, is that the identical eruption might be seen in Rochester because it was in Dallas, at totally different phases of the identical long-duration eruption,” French stated. Breaking house information, the newest updates on rocket launches, skywatching occasions and extra!It would take 100 minutes for the moon’s shadow to cross North America, so a CME might go off simply earlier than and be seen to everybody beneath a transparent sky. CMEs can definitely occur throughout totality. One was imaged on Dec. 14, 2020, throughout the “Nice Patagonian Eclipse” in Chile, when the solar was near photo voltaic minimal. A coronal mass ejection blasts over billion tons of matter into house. (Picture credit score: NASA/Goddard House Flight Middle)2. Photo voltaic flaresSolar flaresFrequency: A number of occasions a monthDuration: Just a few minutesAppearance: Purple loops near the solar’s floor Photo voltaic flares are highly effective bursts of radio waves, seen mild, X-rays and gamma-rays on the floor of the solar that journey at mild velocity and take simply eight minutes to achieve Earth. They typically comply with a CME. Though three photo voltaic flares that reached X class — the highest-intensity stage —went off throughout one week in February, it is extremely unlikely that one might be seen throughout totality. “A photo voltaic flare is totally different to a CME — it is positioned far decrease within the solar’s environment, nearer to the moon’s edge, and could be seen for only some minutes,” French stated. “These would seem just like low-altitude prominences, seen as purple loops nearer to the solar’s floor.” Nevertheless, the timing and place of a photo voltaic flare and a CME must be excellent. “To be seen from Earth, it must be positioned above the solar’s edge — in order to not get blocked by the moon — throughout the couple of minutes of totality,” French stated. Photos of the entire photo voltaic eclipse on Might 29, 1919, proved Einstein’s idea of basic relativity but in addition captured an enormous prominence. (Picture credit score: ESO/Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl/F. W. Dyson, A. S. Eddington, & C. Davidson)3. “Big eruptive prominences””Big eruptive prominences”Frequency: A number of occasions a monthDuration: A number of daysAppearance: Purple towers and loops stretching from the solar’s floor into the coronaPrevious sightings: 1919 and 1946 We’ll see prominences throughout totality on April 8. “Prominences are available a wide range of sizes and are extra frequent throughout photo voltaic most,” French stated. “Typically prominences erupt, untethering from the solar’s floor and increasing into the photo voltaic system.” That may be a spectacular sight, however what eclipse chasers actually need to see are “large eruptive” prominences — ideally indifferent from the solar’s floor and free-floating within the corona. “There have been a number of examples of such prominence eruptions over the previous few months, every of which might have given an ideal present if occurring throughout a complete photo voltaic eclipse,” French stated. “Nevertheless it’s price noting that the eclipse will nonetheless present a view of stationary, non-eruptive prominences; they will simply be smaller and nearer to the solar’s floor than they’d be mid-eruption.”Extending totality to view extra eruptionsData collected by Citizen CATE throughout the 2017 eclipse. (Picture credit score: Citizen CATE Experiment 2017 Workforce)”The issue with eclipses is that they solely final a couple of minutes, so you possibly can’t often take measurements over time,” Amir Caspi, principal scientist on the Southwest Analysis Institute in Boulder, Colorado, informed House.com. “Nevertheless, the solar is extremely dynamic; some processes take minutes and even seconds, similar to a photo voltaic flare or a CME,” Caspi stated. On condition that it is unlikely that such transient occasions will happen throughout totality, there’s just one answer: to make totality longer. One solution to prolong it’s to get in a supersonic jet and chase the moon’s shadow. Scientists did that in 1973 utilizing Concorde, reaching a 73-minute totality. The choice is to movie the eclipsed solar for a couple of minutes from throughout a whole continent, hoping that somebody, someplace, will catch the start or finish of an occasion. That hardly ever occurs, however it’ll on April 8. That day, totality will arrive within the U.S. in Texas at 1:27 p.m. CDT and go away in Maine at 3:35 pm EDT — a complete of 68 minutes. The Citizen Continental-America Telescopic Eclipse (CATE 2024) venture, which Caspi leads, is an try and make a steady 60-minute 3D film of the solar’s corona in polarized mild, utilizing 35 groups of three or 4 citizen scientists. Every will use standardized cameras and setups and hope to get fortunate with the solar.