NASA to Provide Live Coverage, Interviews, Social Media for March 8 Solar Eclipse

NASA, in partnership with the Exploratorium Science Center in San Francisco, will host activities around the March 8 total solar eclipse, including opportunities to talk with solar scientists and live coverage of the eclipse originating from Woleai island in Micronesia.

NASA will host a Facebook Q and A at 2 p.m. EST on March 7, with solar scientists from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

At 1 p.m. on March 8, solar scientists from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, will participate in a Reddit Ask Me Anything.

NASA Television will begin coverage at 8 p.m. on March 8.

The period of total eclipse, called totality, will occur from 8:38 to 8:42 p.m.

Twitter, Google+, Facebook, and Instagram users will be able to join the conversation and ask questions using the hashtag #eclipse2016. The NASA Twitter account for the eclipse is @NASASunEarth. The public will be able to tag and share their images of the solar eclipse on the NASA Flickr group at: flickr.com/groups/eclipse2016/.

The total eclipse will be visible in parts of South East Asia and a partial eclipse will be visible in parts of Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and America Samoa.

An eclipse occurs when the moon passes directly between Earth and the sun.

When the moon's shadow falls on Earth, observers within that shadow see the moon block a portion of the sun's light.

Information about eclipses is available online at: nasa.gov/eclipse.