Total solar eclipse sweeps across North America
Millions gathered under darkened skies as the Moon blotted out the Sun along a path stretching from Mexico to Canada.
A total solar eclipse swept across North America on Monday, plunging a narrow ribbon of the continent into midday darkness and drawing millions of people outdoors to witness one of nature's most spectacular sights.
The Moon's shadow raced across the Earth's surface at more than 2,400 kilometres per hour, entering over Mexico's Pacific coast, crossing into the United States through Texas and arcing northeast through more than a dozen states before passing into Canada and out over the Atlantic. Along this path of totality, day briefly turned to a deep twilight, stars and planets appeared, and the Sun's wispy outer atmosphere, the corona, shimmered around the black disc of the Moon.
Outside the path, a much larger area saw a partial eclipse. Cities and small towns within the path of totality prepared for a flood of visitors, with some declaring states of emergency to manage crowds and traffic. Schools closed, hotels sold out and gatherings formed in parks, stadiums and fields.
For scientists, the few minutes of totality offered a rare chance to study the corona, and researchers launched instruments and even rockets to take advantage. For everyone else, it was simply a shared moment of wonder.
Such events are not rare in cosmic terms, but totality passes over any given location only once in centuries on average. For many who stood beneath the shadow, cheering as the Sun vanished, it was a once-in-a-lifetime spectacle that would not return to much of the continent for another two decades.