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CNN Live Event/Special

Eclipse Proves Einstein's Theory; Safety Warnings For Eclipse Viewing; Atmospheric Effects And Wildlife Reactions Noted; Technological And Social Celebrations Of The Eclipse; Global Scientific Collaboration And Observation. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired April 08, 2024 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[14:00:00]

ADAM FRANK, PROFESSOR OF ASTROPHYSICS, UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER: So it's really a remarkable event.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Yeah, it is something that is sacred in cultures throughout history. Adam, you mentioned that we're able to see things on the sun that we usually aren't. And that's part of the reason that NASA and scientists all over the spectrum have tried to take advantage of the moment to try to gain some research, some special insight into what's happening on the sun. Can you connect the dots for us on the research that's being done today, specifically in this moment, and what kind of answers it may provide scientists?

FRANK: Well, you know, what's amazing is actually over the course of science, how important eclipses have been. An eclipse was used to prove Einstein's theory of relativity, because, you know, normally you can't see stars near the sun. And so in 1918, it was an eclipse that actually allowed us to see stars near the sun. And so in 1918, it was an eclipse that actually allowed us to see that relativity was true. And previous to that, you know, going early on, one of the first estimates of the size of the moon and the distance of the moon, way back in the Greek time, was used eclipses. Now, we can sort of create eclipses if we want, or we can study these things often without having an actual eclipse occur. But we're still using these eclipses as ways of seeing into or seeing the outer layers of the sun and studying sort of the crazy dynamics, the explosive properties of that solar atmosphere.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And Adam, people need to be safe. We need to be clear about that. They may have, you know, at the last minute decided, oh, man, I really want to be a part of this. And they may not even, hopefully they have glasses, or they can find a place in their community where they're handing out glasses, or they can purchase them, and they meet the standard. But if they don't, there is sort of an at-home way they can do with a pinpoint for projector if they go online and Google. Explain to people why it is so important that they are making sure they are not looking at the sun, even for a moment, to capture this.

FRANK: Yeah, the sun's light is so potent, is so powerful that it can do, if you were to stare at the sun, it would, you know, destroy the optics of your eye, the optic nerve. It would just basically fry the optic nerve. So you can do permanent damage to your optic nerve by staring at the sun. So, you know, there's, you can go online, right, if you can Google, there's a bunch of different ways to make your own homemade eclipse viewer. But absolutely do not look at the sun with your naked eye, because you could really do damage for, that would last a long time after this. So it's just not worth it.

SANCHEZ: Adam, thank you so much for sharing your expertise with us. We look forward to getting your reactions on the other side of what we're about to see. You hear cheering at Mazatlan, Mexico. That's because totality is less than five minutes away. And I think we have, yeah, there it is right there. You see just that tiny sliver of sun, the moon almost completely covering it.

KEILAR: That's right. Every place that we are going to is going to have this moment of totality. This is the first four minutes, just a little more than four minutes away there in Mazatlan, Mexico. And our Chad Myers is following the path. He's following the clouds because that is certainly an issue in some areas. What are folks going to be seeing there in Mazatlan and through Mexico and into Texas as this gets started? This moment of totality, Chad?

CHAD MYERS, METEOROLOGIST: Yeah a few amazing moments for these people. There's something called the Purkinje effect, and it will not show up on a camera because the cameras do not have cones and rods in their eyes. But if I were standing out there right in Mazatlan right now, this maroon tie would be black. This blue shirt would still be blue. But the red rods and cones in our eyes will not pick up the red very well. And that red tint will go away. The blues will still be there because they're a different wavelength. Something else here right now. I told you that the clouds would go away. Well, this is a visible satellite. So this is what the satellite is seeing.

The satellite isn't seeing clouds go away. The satellite is seeing the lack of sunshine on those clouds. So the clouds are disappearing. They're still there if you look up. But they're not on the satellite anymore. I'm going to have to switch to an infrared satellite as we get closer and closer on up here toward the United States because you just can't see them anymore. So what's going on here? We still have the cloud cover coming into Kerrville. I'm really worried about this. It's getting thicker and thicker by the hour. But as the atmosphere cools down, that also could start to eliminate some of the clouds. It's going to evaporate the clouds because there's not that lift in the atmosphere because the temperatures are cooling down. And you'll feel that. You'll feel that in Indianapolis, too. Temperatures will likely drop between 6 and 8 degrees, especially if you're standing in the sun compared to not standing in the sun. Something else is going to go on.

[14:05:09]

Something else is going to go on. If you're standing under a tree that has leaves, I want you to look down at the ground. You will see the crescent of the sun on the ground. Every time there's a tiny little pinhole in those leaves, you will see hundreds, maybe thousands, of little crescent shapes down across parts on the surface itself, likely on the concrete. Harry Anton, I'm not sure what Harry's going to see except maybe the mate of the mist there at Niagara Falls because, boy, this looks really socked in at this point in time for not so much Cleveland, but you get up toward upstate New York, you get into the Niagara frontier, and an awful lot of cloud cover.

If you're on one side of the sun or the other, the moon's shadow here, you're going to have a much shorter totality, possibly only about what we think 17 seconds for San Antonio. But now you go a little bit farther to the west and you get a couple of minutes. Dallas, same story. Fort Worth, about two minutes here, but just to the west of Fort Worth, only 35 seconds. So try to get to the middle if you still can. There is still time to see this most amazing event that I will likely not be around the next time this happens unless I fly somewhere else. There will be other total eclipses, but not for the U.S., but for 24 years. 20-something.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, it is going to be a very special moment for so many people across the country. Chad, thank you so much for the forecast. This is a live look at Mazatlan in Mexico, where we are just seconds away from totality. You're looking at a CNN Espanol reporter who's going live for the network there. And on the right-hand side, you see the shade that's been cast, the shadow that's been cast, as we are just 48 seconds now from totality in Mazatlan. Really an incredible moment for millions of people across North America.

KEILAR: It is just stunning, this idea. And there you see they're getting so excited as it's starting. They think it has started, but it hasn't fully started. There's still 30 seconds left. And what they hopefully will be able to see is these tiny beads of light as this moves across, the shadow moves across Earth, these beads of light coming from the sun's rays on the valleys of the moon. It should be hopefully amazing what they see there.

SANCHEZ: There is just a tiny, tiny sliver as we are now four, three seconds away from totality. And here we are, the first totality for this total solar eclipse hitting Mazatlan, Mexico, as we speak. It looks like dust there. A lot of folks with their phones out. You hear cheering and celebrating a unique moment in this celestial dance we get to experience.

KEILAR: And this is the first moment. They will be experiencing this in Mazatlan, and then it is going to move through Mexico, up through Texas. We have reporters through Texas as well, all the way here through Indianapolis. And this will move with the course of the next hour or so. It's going to be amazing all the way through Canada.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, let's take a moment to absorb this. Let's listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: (SCREAMING) (CROSSTALK)

[14:10:09]

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: We are seeing an extraordinary sight here, and this is what we talked about. The moon as we see it is bigger than the sun. So as it passes between Earth and the sun, we are seeing this amazing corona of the sun, including what appears to be a solar flare there on the lower right-hand side.

SANCHEZ: We are witnessing a moment unlike any other. This doesn't happen, as far as we know, just about anywhere else in the universe, according to the experts that we've just talked to. And you heard the crowd there celebrating in Masatlan, moments of joy. You saw children running around and smiling. You saw people with their phones taking pictures. I heard people yelling in Spanish, look at the eerie horizon because the horizon is still lit up. And these are now the rare special minutes of totality. Where you get about four minutes of this sight that you won't see anywhere else. And that doesn't just happen. It is rare and obviously a very special moment to reflect on how lucky we are to join in this experience together and to be on this Earth where magical stuff like this happens.

KEILAR: It really is amazing as we are watching this from Masatlan, the first stop in this zone of totality. And we're also getting this experience of how the weather is interacting with the solar eclipse. Because you can see as it is coming in and out, the brightness of the corona of the sun, of what we are seeing illuminate behind the moon. And there you see it, that effect, that diamond ring as it comes back out after the totality. The sun was affecting it. So we were seeing it more clearly and less clearly. Wow.

SANCHEZ: Yeah.

KEILAR: Look at that.

SANCHEZ: That's quite a sensation.

KEILAR: I know.

SANCHEZ: Even just watching it on the screen, it felt special and it still does. It feels amazing to witness this. You're right about that diamond ring effect. You see like that sort of eerie glow and then there's like a pop on the edge. And that's what we're going to witness here in Indy. I want to say in just about an hour or so from now.

KEILAR: Yeah, that's right. And it won't be quite as long, right? In Mexico, they're getting quite a show. But also to put into perspective for folks, one of the reasons that this total solar eclipse is so fantastic and that we're making such a big deal out of it, is that even the shortest totality is longer than the longest totality in 2017. People will just get an amazing chance to see this because of the positioning of the moon in its orbit at this particular time. Let's go now to Torreon, Mexico, where we're about to witness another live moment of totality.

SANCHEZ: Is Gustavo Valdez there for us? Gustavo, what does it look like?

GUSTAVO VALDES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm checking it out. Yeah. Well, we're just checking out. The irony here is that this is a desert. They rarely get the cloud cover we're getting today. But it's not too bad. We'll still be able to see what's happening up there. You can hear the people screaming. I'm putting on my glasses so I can look up and give you an idea of what we're seeing. You can see just that sliver of the sun peeking through. The moon as it comes across. And a few things we have experienced already. The first thing we've noticed is the lower temperature. It cooled down significantly. And another thing we were talking about earlier, about the birds. And we've been noticing how all the birds from this area, seem to be flying back to their nest, in fact, you see those two pigeons there.

They came back a few minutes ago and certainly they're confused. Unfortunately, the state government decided to put a big generator behind us so we cannot hear the birds on the microphone, but we can hear the noises. You are also hearing the crowd cheering as they see what everybody is seeing through their televisions. But they're experiencing here people, I mean, school, work got canceled. So we're trying to see if we can see a little bit of what the cloud cover is. Pablo, if you can show them the sun.

[14:15:09]

VALDES: Let's see what it's looking like. It's a little bit, like I said, there's a big cloud cover, but not too bad. We can still see the edge of the moon. The question right now is going to be once we reach to totality in a couple of minutes, if we're going to be able to see the full ring, let's hope that the clouds do not interfere with that experience with these tens of thousands of people who are waiting like everybody else to see this event. Like we've been saying, there are people here from all over the world. They are experiencing this. The scientists, you know, the images that you have on screen are from NASA. They got lucky, all the scientists got lucky that Torreon happens to have a telescope that is pointing to the sun all the time.

So they're able to cover this event and for everybody else to see. And now let's try to take a look. And I think now the lighting is completely changed. Pablo, show the people because now the light is a different color. It's actually very clear. The way, I don't know how to explain it, but it's basically as if somebody in darkness turned on a light and let's listen in because now people are starting to cheer more. I'm changing here my glasses so I can experience with everybody else. And yes, it's almost, it's almost there. Like I said, the cloud cover here might prevent us from seeing the ring, but we are seconds away. If you want to just remain quiet as we reach the peak and you can hear the crowd.

UNKNOWN: (SCREAMING)

VALDES: There it is. Now here, its beautiful.

UNKNOWN: (SCREAMING)

VALDES: This is an amazing sight. On the ground, total darkness. Unfortunately, the park lights came on, so there's not giving us a clear view of how dark it is. It is a very clean light that is coming through. It is a blue light and you can see the ring. You can see that little dot of light. The birds are flying. They seem a little confused.

UNKNOWN: (SCREAMING)

VALDES: Very special moment that we're witnessing here. People are celebrating. People are celebrating. Obviously trying to record it. There's a star off to get thing is a planet. Somebody from the weather department might be able to tell me, but we start seeing a little bit of the sky is not a complete darkness. There's still a little hue of blue on the sky. In fact, looking away from the city, the sky seems to be a little darker than looking into the sky.

UNKNOWN: (SCREAMING)

VALDES: And you can feel the emotion from the people. Obviously now technology allows us to capture those moments on the phone.

[14:20:07]

People are celebrating taking their selfies and you can hear the birds just like we heard them earlier in the morning just before the sunrise. The birds seem to be back on their nests and now there's a little bit of a sense of calm. I mean this is obviously we're lucky that we have one of the longest time experiencing the eclipse and we can see a little bit of the change on the ring. I think the cloud coverage is also helping to give it an extra something. It's not a clear view but still it's not bad at all. This is a great experience to share with tens of thousands of people from Mexico, from central Mexico and from all over the world. But let's see, what are you hearing? What do you like about this?

UNKNOWN (through Gustav Valdes): She's noticing what we've been saying the birds sound like they're getting ready to go to sleep. They're going back to their nest.

VALDES (foreign language): What do you feel about hosting this event for the world?

UNKNOWN (through Gustav Valdes): So she's very glad that they can be the host something they haven't seen here for 200 years and that they can share it with the world.

VALDES: So that's the feeling of the locals, the people who are coming here and here's the with the sun starting to peak out we're gonna-

UNKNOWN: (SCREAMING)

KEILAR: Gustavo thank you so much for that amazing view from Torreon, Mexico as this continues through the path of totality. Any second now Kerrville, Texas is going to see this amazing view we are keeping our eye on that we're getting in a quick break we'll be right back don't miss a second this is all going to happen very quickly.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:25:19] KEILAR: All right, we are looking at live pictures there of the crowd in Kerrville, Texas. We are moments away from totality there as the solar eclipse is crossing the U.S. now.

SANCHEZ: And there were some questions about how weather might impact the view there. Let's get live to CNN's Rosa Flores, who's reporting has really taken us there with some fortune telling, some special glasses. Rosa, what do you have for us now?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPINDENT: Boris, Brianna, there is a craze in the air right now. And every now and then you will hear people screaming and clapping. And that's when there's a part in the clouds and people can actually see the Crescent. Right now it's a tiny tiny Crescent. I'm here with the Gately family. This family traveled from three different states. This is Barbara, the great grandmother of six children here. Barbara, you excited?

BARBARA: Oh yes, yes, yes. I'm glad it isn't any rainier than I expected it to be.

FLORES: It's nice, isn't it?

BARBARA: Its nice, yes.

FLORES: If you look through your glasses, what do you see right now Barbara?

BARBARA: I see a last little tiny sliver like a fingernail.

FLORES: Oh, so it's we're moments away then.

BARBARA: Yes, yes, very soon it's starting to get dark.

FLORES: Yeah, yeah, and Boris and Briana were starting to feel this the breeze. So there's a bit of a temperature drop and I can tell you that the colors out here almost seem like whenever you put a filter on your phone and the colors kind of distort a little, that's what I can see with my naked eyes out here because there is this hue, almost Twilight. Now I'm here with Shane, Clementine and Nicholas, and I'm hoping that they can look up at the sky. She let's start with you to see what you can see. Well, put your glasses on. Put your glasses on now.

UNKNOWN: Well, right now I can't see much because there's some clouds. I can't see much. But a minute ago we had our almost total eclipse is almost there now.

FLORES: Put your glasses on, put your glasses on.

UNKNOWN: So too many clouds.

FLORES: Oh the clouds, yeah

UNKNOWN: I can't see anything with the glasses on.

FLORES: Put your glasses on. Let's see Nicholas. NICHOLAS: Right now, we can see it right now. As of currently now

disappeared. But the clouds you see them moving away. So hopefully we'll be able to see the total solar eclipse soon.

FLORES: How exciting is this Nicholas?

NICHOLAS: This is going to be my first total solar

FLORES: Put your glasses on. Put your glasses on.

UNKNOWN: --This is going to be my first total solar eclipse so I'm excited for this--

(TECHNICAL DIFFICULTY)

FLORES: We're gonna be moving this way a little bit Leon only because our camera is signal is breaking up a little bit so we're gonna move it closer to our signal to make sure that we don't break up.