Science Begins in Wonder

Last Monday, more than 40 million people across North America were enveloped by one of the strangest and most beautiful displays in nature – a 300-mile-wide shadow racing across astonished onlookers from Mexico to Maine as our Moon perfectly aligned with the Sun in the afternoon sky.

As totality approaches, things start to get... weird. Faint light from a thin-sliver Sun draws shimmering crescent shadows under trees and shrubs. Cool winds come from nowhere as the air temperature drops by up to 10 degrees Fahrenheit. Shadow bands – undulating refractions of light from the turbulence in our upper atmosphere – sweep across the ground as the last splinter of Sun disappears. Finally, a breathtaking darkness drops and a collective gasp rises as the Sun's brilliant corona ghostly illuminates a blackened sky. Jupiter and Venus shine brightly as a chorus of chirping crickets welcome the unexpected night, while rich sunset colors blaze on the horizon in every direction. Your hairs stand on end as you experience the bizarre and beautiful celestial dance of a total solar eclipse.

The pains of traffic jams, overbooked flights, and expensive hotels do little to dull the collective joy of human beings encountering their place in the cosmos as if for the first time. Veteran scientists, practiced meteorologists, and stoic public officials broke down into tears while describing the scene to virtual viewers. Millions outside of the path of totality tuned in from across the country to catch of glimpse of this wildly-improbable, emotionally-evocative coincidence. Our modest Moon, 400 times smaller than our sizable Sun, is also exactly 400 times closer, making the two spheres in the sky appear perfectly equal in size. As the Earth spins around the Sun, and the Moon spins around the Earth, this pinpoint alignment occurs every few years somewhere on the planet, typically over empty ocean. The recent total eclipse of 2017 and 2024's return show in the United States were unusually close together – the next total solar eclipse won't darken our skies again until the mid-2040's.

The slow-moving wave of cheering masses across America's heartland following the path of totality is a reminder of the power of science to inspire awe in us all – regardless of age, ideology, background, or training. Science begins in wonder: vivid moments of intuitive and visceral understanding that forever change how you see yourself, the world you live on, the web of life you share it with, and the cosmos that holds all mysteries together.

Our collective admiration for nature's beauty, unfathomable scale, and deep complexity, is profoundly simple in the end. Wonder reminds us that we belong here on this pale blue dot, and that this incredible jewel of a planet belongs to us as well. And yet, the Earth is suffering under our care. Since 1970, wildlife populations have plummeted by almost 70%. Reckless burning of fossil fuels is rapidly destabilizing our climate, worsening extreme weather and threatening further biodiversity loss, food insecurity, and more. More than half of our oceans are turning green. Glaciers and ice sheets are retreating around the globe. Air and sea surface temperatures continue to break historical records. And yet, policymakers are not meeting the moment of this compounding crisis.

Climate anxiety – the distressing emotions that rise when one begins to understand what we are doing to the planet and its biosphere – is fast becoming a sign of the times. As an acute sufferer myself, I can attest to the importance of focusing as well on the thrilling potential of a world waking up to our own interconnectedness and capacity to build a future of our choosing. What's more, we are part of an intricate cosmic community of worlds and wonders, each with their own unique splendor – but none quite as shimmering as our own blue marble.

I'll leave you some wise words from a former colleague at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory , who had much to say on our responsibility to be better stewards of this precious world:

“In the last few millennia we have made the most astonishing and unexpected discoveries about the Cosmos and our place within it, explorations that are exhilarating to consider. They remind us that humans have evolved to wonder, that understanding is a joy, that knowledge is prerequisite to survival. I believe our future depends powerfully on how well we understand this Cosmos in which we float like a mote of dust in the morning sky.”

- Carl Sagan