Friday's remote solar eclipse will be on Internet

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer Mon Jul 28, 5:16 PM ET

WASHINGTON - A total solar eclipse will darken some of Earth's skies on Friday, but geography, weather, the economy and even the Olympics are combining to make it a hard and expensive for people to see it.

The total blotting out of the sun, which occurs when the moon's dark inner shadow falls on parts of the Earth, can only be seen in mostly remote places: the northeastern edge of Canada, the tip of Greenland, parts of Russia, China and Mongolia, including the famed Gobi desert. For those who can't be there, it will be shown live on the Internet.

Some of the areas where the eclipse will last the longest — including parts of the Arctic — have a 75 percent chance of bad weather that will make it tough to see. This eclipse at its peak will last for 2 minutes and 27 seconds.

Yet eclipse chasers can't wait for the sky to darken, animals to howl and people to stare in awe.

"It's so rare and unusual, it's unfortunate to pass up any chance," said NASA astrophysicist Fred Espenak, who has been chasing eclipses since 1970 and has his own Mr. Eclipse Web site and a NASA solar eclipse Web site. Espenak will be in northern China to watch the eclipse with a tour group.

The Olympics, which start a week later in Beijing, are making it expensive and difficult to get plane tickets and hotel rooms, Espenak said. And the world's economy and fuel prices are making it even tougher, so fewer people are going, said Richard Fienberg, editor emeritus of Sky and Telescope magazine and spokesman for the American Astronomical Society.

Past eclipse tours cost around $1,000 to $2,000, but many of the China tours are $3,000 to $6,000, plus airfare. To join Fienberg on a Russian icebreaker that includes a North Pole stop costs about $23,000.

There is a a cut-rate closer to home option.

"The northeastern part of Maine will see a little bit of this eclipse right at sunrise," Espenak said.

And the eclipse can also be seen remotely. Museums, such as the Exploratorium in San Francisco, will have eclipse events. NASA, the Exploratorium and others will broadcast the eclipse live on the Internet. It reaches its peak at 7:09 a.m. EDT.

Next year's total solar eclipse — July 22, 2009 — will be more southern and last the longest of the 21st Century: 6 minutes, 39 seconds. But it will be during monsoon season and can be seen, only if the weather cooperates, in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, China and the Pacific Ocean.

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On the Net

NASA's 2008 solar eclipse web site: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEmono/TSE2008/TSE2008.html

Earth is going to vanish in 2029 ???Huge Asteroid to hit earth in 2029 May Not !

The space rock, dubbed 2006 VV2, came within 2.1million miles of hitting us — which is a near miss in space terms, even though that's about nine
times farther away than the moon.

The asteroid was flying past Earth on Friday night, at 11 p.m. (PDT), and on Saturday 7 a.m. GMT for Europe.

There was no danger of collision. And that's a really good thing. This space rock, named 2006 VV2, is more than a mile wide (about 2 kilometers), according to the Web site.

If one that big hit Earth, it would blow a crater the size of London and wipe out a whole country; it would derail global commerce and create a climate change unlike anything seen in modern history.

Jay Tate, who runs Spaceguard UK, said: "Asteroids are a very real danger. We need to find and track them. Dinosaurs are extinct because they couldn’t do anything about the asteroid hazard. We face precisely the same risk."

The best viewing locations were in the Americas, as the rock passed directly over Southern California, and though it has been far too dim to see with the naked eye, amateur backyard astronomers were able to spot it with good-sized telescopes and CCD cameras.

But one asteroid called Apophis will pass very close to Earth in the year 2029 and has a minor chance of hitting the planet in 2036, though it will most likely come close to the earth.

In fact, this asteroid will be the first in human history to be clearly visible to the naked eye.

The asteroid is said to have the power of 65,000 Hiroshima bombs. Also, it has the power to wipe out a small country, and churn up a tidal wave that could become 800 ft (244 m) high. These are things that could happen if Apophis hits the earth.

As for now, with the little risk that the asteroid has to hit the Earth, NASA has decided to hold off on devising any plans until they can get a more accurate idea of what is in store for Apophis, the asteroid.
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