Man shares newspaper from 1970 forecasting 2024’s upcoming solar eclipse
A newspaper from over 50 years ago forecasted the date for a future solar eclipse.
Reddit user u/Fleegle1834 posted newspaper clippings from the 1970s on r/damnthatsinteresting with the headline reading: 'Millions See Eclipse; Next Showing in 2024'.
The social post is captioned: 'My neighbor has a newspaper from 1970 forecasting this year’s solar eclipse (April 8).'
Answering other users' queries in the thread, the original poster confirmed that the newspaper was The Washington Post.
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Some Reddit users were excited about the accurate predictions.
One user commented: 'So cool ! That’s the year I was born. Glad I’ll get to see this one!'.
Another user pointed out: 'That's so cool that your neighbor still has a copy of that newspaper!'
Other users were confused as to why the 2017 eclipse was missed, with one writing: 'Weird. How did they think 2024 was the next one? We had a full eclipse just a few years ago in the US.'
The post was also shared on X in which one user responded: 'Fascinating to see predictions of celestial events from the past.
'It reminds us of the awe-inspiring nature of the universe and our place within it. Science and history intertwined in a single newspaper page.'
Another more playfully claimed: 'gonna be (petition to add an eclipse emoji, stat)'.
According to Space.com, the next solar eclipse is scheduled to be on April 8, 2024 and is expected to be visible at 1:58 p.m. that day.
It's being called the 'Great North American Solar Eclipse' and the event can be witnessed by everyone across Mexico, the United States, and Canada.
'A total solar eclipse happens when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, completely blocking the face of the Sun. The sky will darken as if it were dawn or dusk,' NASA described.
The duration of totality for the upcoming eclipse will be up to 4 minutes and 27 seconds, nearly double that of The Great American Eclipse of August 21, 2017.
The 2017 total solar eclipse was watched by 20 million people from Oregon to South Carolina - the upcoming 2024 eclipse is likely to draw an ever larger audience.
After that, the next eclipse in our lifetime that can be seen from the US will be on August 23, 2044.