Here's What Humanity Will Learn from the Solar Eclipse

[Narrator] America just witnessed the most fantastic

celestial phenomenon human eyes can witness:

the total solar eclipse.

The moon passed in front of the sun and the shadow hit

Oregon Monday morning, traveling at 2,500 miles per hour,

cutting through the Rocky Mountains in the Midwest

before exiting through South Carolina.

It was a national spectacle

and a huge opportunity for science.

Social media too, apparently.

Most righteously, NASA chased the shadow

with two high-altitude planes, extending its viewing time

from just a few minutes to over seven.

Because for as ubiquitous as the sun is,

it's still a great big mystery.

Why, for instance, is the sun's outer atmosphere

so much hotter than its surface?

By observing the sun's corona peaking out from the moon,

NASA is aiming to find out.

In fact, by making similar observations

during an 1868 eclipse,

an astronomer discovered the element helium in the sun.

The eclipse was also a rare opportunity to study Mercury,

oddly enough.

With the sun blotted out,

NASA could do temperature readings of the planet's surface.

By showing how bits of the surface cool,

the researchers can tell what materials they're made of.

And it's not just NASA that took the opportunity

to get some exhilarating science done.

High school and college students did their own experiments

like launching observation balloons.

Other scientists observed animals like cows

to see how their behavior might change when the world

suddenly plunges into darkness.

[Announcer] Now, we're also talking about cricket behavior

and cricket observations.

[Narrator] So the eclipse is over and the data is in.

Now it's just a matter of making sense of it.

The rest of us will cherish perhaps the only

total solar eclipse many of us will ever see.

Unless you happen to be in the path of the United States'

next total solar eclipse in 2024.

Oh, and be jealous of Wired's head of social media,

Natalie DiBlasio, who didn't leave the bird's eye view

to the balloons.

(whooshing wind)

No joke, she jumped out of a helicopter

and witnessed the greatest celestial event in the world.

And you better believe she Instagramed it.