On Monday, April 8, most of North America will have the chance to see the Moon pass in front of the Sun during a solar eclipse. NASA is inviting the public to participate with in-person events, opportunities to do NASA science, and multiple ways to watch online.

Millions of people along the path of totality – which stretches from Texas to Maine in the United States – will see a total solar eclipse, when the Moon completely covers the Sun. Outside the path of totality, people across the contiguous United States will have a chance to see a partial solar eclipse, when the Moon covers part of the Sun.

Join Neil deGrasse Tyson, the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium, and a panel of leading scientists and experts for a spirited conversation around the profound impact NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is having on our understanding of the universe since it began transmitting images and astronomical data in 2022.

The late Dr. Isaac Asimov, one of the most prolific and influential authors of our time, was a dear friend and supporter of the American Museum of Natural History. In his memory, the Hayden Planetarium is honored to host the annual Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate—generously endowed by relatives, friends, and admirers of Isaac Asimov and his work—bringing the finest minds in the world to the Museum each year to debate pressing questions on the frontier of scientific discovery.

NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft has entered a new region between our solar system and interstellar space. Data obtained from Voyager over the last year reveal this new region to be a kind of cosmic purgatory.

Although Voyager 1 is about 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) from the sun, it is not yet in interstellar space. In the latest data, the direction of the magnetic field lines has not changed, indicating Voyager is still within the heliosphere, the bubble of charged particles the sun blows around itself. The data do not reveal exactly when Voyager 1 will make it past the edge of the solar atmosphere into interstellar space, but suggest it will be in a few months to a few years.

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, about the size of a small car, will travel directly into our Sun's atmosphere about 4 million miles from the star's surface, closer than any manmade object has ever come to our home star. The historic mission that will revolutionize our understanding of the Sun is scheduled to launch on Saturday, Aug. 11, 2018.

At closest approach, the Parker Solar Probe will travel around the Sun at approximately 430,000 mph (700,000 kph). That's fast enough to get from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., in one second.