The April 20 eclipse observations served as preparation for the Citizen Continental-America Telescopic Eclipse (CATE) experiment ahead of a total solar eclipse that will traverse the continental U.S. next year, on April 8, 2024. CATE 2024 will use a network of 35 citizen scientist teams stationed along the path to make a continuous 60-minute high-resolution movie of the eclipse. Credit: SwRI/Citizen CATE 2024/Dan Seaton
Scientists from Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) led a team in the unique Citizen Continental-America Telescopic Eclipse (CATE) experiment to image the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona, during a short solar eclipse on the opposite side of the Earth. Using four platforms in the northwest corner of Australia, the team successfully observed the million-degree solar corona at the April 20 eclipse viewed from the Exmouth peninsula. The Australian eclipse serves both as a unique scientific opportunity and a training exercise for the program’s leadership in preparation for the 2024 U.S. eclipse.
The CATE 2024 team traveled nearly 10,000 miles for one minute of totality to observe the Sun’s corona from the unique perspective offered by total solar eclipses. These phenomena allow scientists to view the complex and dynamic outer atmosphere in ways that aren’t possible or practical by any other means, opening new windows into our understanding of the solar corona. SwRI is leading the Citizen CATE 2024 experiment, a broad scientific outreach initiative that will make a continuous 60-minute high-resolution movie during the April 8, 2024, solar eclipse over the United States. CATE 2024 will use a network of 35 teams of citizen scientists representing the local communities within the eclipse shadow path.
“Even though this was a very short eclipse, our team of community scientists performed flawlessly and captured fabulous images of the structure of the elusive solar corona,” said Dr. Amir Caspi, a principal scientist at SwRI in Boulder, Colorado, and leader of the CATE 2024 project.
The observations obtained by the team will allow scientists to study the complexities of the Sun’s corona including its complicated shape, how it changes over time, or what causes the corona to reach temperatures of millions of degrees Fahrenheit. Today’s images from Australia will also help the team to refine its experimental procedures for the immense, distributed community effort in the United States next year.
A team of researchers from SwRI, NSO, NCAR, the University of Northern Colorado, Rice University, the University of Indiana, and the University of Maine observed a rare hybrid eclipse April 20 from four platforms in the Exmouth Peninsula, as the eclipse tracked through parts of Australia and Indonesia. Credit: SwRI/Citizen CATE 2024/Dan Seaton
“This eclipse provided the perfect opportunity to test our equipment and procedures, and to train our community leaders for the next eclipse in 2024,” Caspi said. “When it comes to preparations for this kind of major effort, there’s no substitute for the real thing.”
The Citizen CATE 2024 project is led by SwRI, and includes the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the National Solar Observatory, the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder, and the Space Science Institute. Beyond its scientific goals, the project aims to engage many unique and diverse communities along the eclipse path as an integral part of a major scientific research effort.
“Total solar eclipses provide wonderful opportunities to bring together the public and science,” said Dr. Carrie Black, program officer for the National Solar Observatory at the NSF Astronomical Sciences Division. “The Citizen CATE 2024 project leverages the public value of science to create a lasting educational impact for both the scientific and local communities.”
“Citizen CATE is part of a growing family of NASA citizen science projects gearing up for the Heliophysics Big Year initiative in 2023-2024, inspiring joy and curiosity along with excellent participatory science opportunities,” said Dr. Elizabeth MacDonald, Citizen Science Strategic Working Group lead at NASA.
The Citizen CATE 2024 project produced this false color image of the solar corona during the 2023 total solar eclipse from Exmouth, Western Australia. The image combines two crossed polarization angles, indicated by color. Prominences, loops and streamers are easily visible in this high-resolution image. Credit: SwRI/Citizen CATE 2024/Dan Seaton
The current project builds on the experience of the first Citizen CATE experiment, which used 68 stations to observe the August 2017 total solar eclipse that crossed the entire continental United States. CATE 2024 expands the scientific objectives by measuring polarized light and engages with teams across the new eclipse path. Dr. Sarah Kovac, a 2017 CATE participant and now a postdoctoral researcher at SwRI, serves as project manager for CATE 2024.
“Participating in CATE as a young undergraduate inspired me to pursue a career in heliophysics,” said Kovac. “Seven years and one Ph.D. later, I get to be on the professional side of planning an eclipse expedition, and it’s beyond exciting to share this passion with the next generation of young scientists.”
The 2023 Australian observation effort includes team members from SwRI, NSO, NCAR, the University of Northern Colorado, Rice University, the University of Indiana, and the University of Maine.
The project will begin to recruit teams from eclipse path communities in Fall of 2023. Interested parties can find more information and a contact form on the project‘s website, https://eclipse.boulder.swri.edu.
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NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
