分类： science

After more than a century without a total solar eclipse crossing its mainland, Spain is poised to welcome a breathtaking celestial event on August 12, capped by an even longer dramatic astronomical showcase next summer. To amplify the spectacle, the once-in-a-generation eclipse will coincide with two other extraordinary sky phenomena: a six-planet alignment and the peak of the annual Perseid meteor shower, creating a rare triple treat for stargazers across the Northern Hemisphere.

When the sun, moon, and Earth fall into perfect straight-line alignment on August 12, daytime darkness will descend across parts of the Iberian Peninsula, Greenland, and Iceland near the hour of sunset. The moon’s dark, sun-blocking shadow, called the umbra, will begin its journey near the North Pole and track southward across 8,260 kilometers (5,130 miles) of mostly open Atlantic Ocean, taking 90 minutes to complete its path. The longest period of totality, clocking in at 2 minutes 18 seconds, will occur off Iceland’s west coast. By the time the umbra reaches coastal Portugal and mainland Spain, where crowds of astronomy enthusiasts are already gathering, totality will narrow to just around one minute before the eclipse concludes in the Mediterranean Sea. This event acts as a preview for an even longer total solar eclipse coming in 2027, which will offer up to six and a half minutes of totality as it crosses from southern Spain through North Africa and into the Middle East.

While only viewers along the narrow path of totality will get to experience the full, jaw-dropping effect of the total eclipse, hundreds of millions of people across a vastly larger geographic area will be able to view a striking partial eclipse. The partial shadow of the moon will reach as far north as Alaska and Siberia, covering most of Canada, the northern United States, nearly all of Europe, and large swathes of West Africa. The degree of coverage decreases the further a viewer is from the path of totality: Dublin will see 94% of the sun blocked, Oslo will see 83%, Montreal 18%, New York 9%, and just 2% coverage will be visible in Norfolk, Virginia. Astronomers stress that proper eye protection via certified special eclipse glasses is non-negotiable for any viewing of a partial eclipse, even when only a tiny fraction of the sun is visible.

The celestial magic does not end with the eclipse. Before dawn on August 12, six planets will align into a visible arc stretching across the pre-sky, and after nightfall, the annual Perseid meteor shower will reach its peak under a dark new moon. Forecasters note that bright streaking meteors could even pass through the frame of totality, with bright planets and distant stars visible in the darkened sky during the event.

Eclipse-chasing enthusiasts from around the world are already planning their viewing spots, and many are chasing extra rare phenomena alongside the main event. Michael Zeiler, a veteran eclipse mapmaker who is attending his 13th total solar eclipse, will be positioned on a cruise ship in a Greenland fjord serving as a guest lecturer. He plans to point a video camera north to capture the northern lights if they appear during totality, calling a large solar outburst that triggers auroras the “icing on the cake” for his experience. Zeiler notes that his excitement stems from chasing these extremely rare celestial events.

Major scientific organizations from across the globe are also leaning into the moment, planning public watch parties, live broadcasts, and cutting-edge research. The European Space Agency (ESA) will host a public celebration in Leon, Spain, and stream live coverage from the Astrophysical Observatory of Javalambre, with NASA, the Italy-based Virtual Telescope Project, and other groups also offering global live coverage. ESA Science Director Carole Mundell emphasized that the eclipse is more than just a scientific event or an astronomical alignment: it is a shared human experience that connects all people to the broader cosmos. Two of ESA’s space telescopes will observe the eclipsed sun and its faint outer atmosphere, the corona. While the agency’s Proba-3 mission — a pair of satellites that create artificial solar eclipses for research — will be in the wrong orbital position to observe the natural eclipse from Earth, it will attempt to capture before-and-after imagery of the sun for comparison.

U.S. university research teams supported by NASA are also conducting atmospheric studies, launching more than 60 high-altitude balloons from sites in Spain and Iceland to measure changes in Earth’s atmosphere during the brief period of cooling and darkness caused by the eclipse. Project lead Angela Des Jardins of Montana State University noted that even just a few minutes of totality is enough to cause measurable atmospheric changes from the moon’s cold shadow. On a NASA high-altitude research plane, Southwest Research Institute scientist Amir Caspi will chase the eclipse’s shadow at 740 kph (460 mph), extending the total eclipse observation time to nearly three minutes for his team. Four specialized cameras will capture the corona across nine different wavelengths, with Caspi expecting to collect thousands of high-quality scientific images during the 180 seconds of extended observation. Even though the natural eclipse is short, Caspi emphasized that the data gathered will be incredibly valuable for solar research.

For astronomy fans in Spain, this event is just the first of a rare run of celestial shows. In 2027, an exceptionally long total solar eclipse will cross the southern tip of Spain on August 2, offering up to 6 minutes 23 seconds of totality before tracking across Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Somalia. Then in January 2028, an annular “ring of fire” eclipse will complete a unique three-eclipse sequence for the country, what ESA’s Mundell calls a “lucky coincidence.”

This rarity of this week’s event makes it all the more special: mainland Spain’s last full total solar eclipse occurred in 1912, just two days before the sinking of the Titanic. That 1912 event was a rare hybrid eclipse that shifted between annular and total, offering only a few seconds of totality for most of the mainland, leading many astronomers to date the last major total eclipse to 1905. For Andrei Zhukov of the Royal Observatory of Belgium, who has led more than 60 simulated artificial total eclipses as part of the Proba-3 mission over the past two years, any eclipse — natural or artificial — is a cause for excitement. “We’re looking forward to more eclipses, natural or artificial,” Zhukov said.

This report was produced by The Associated Press Health and Science Department, which receives educational funding from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP retains full editorial control over all content.

LONDON – A landmark decision to end public funding for one of the world’s most historic and celebrated radio telescopes has triggered widespread outrage and deep concern across the global scientific community. The Lovell Telescope, the centerpiece of the Jodrell Bank Observatory – a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in northwest England that has pushed forward the boundaries of cosmic exploration for nearly seven decades – will lose all government backing after 2028, according to an official announcement.

U.K. Research and Innovation (UKRI), the government’s public funding body for research and innovation, revealed the funding change Monday. The 76-meter-wide Lovell Telescope, a recognizable regional landmark that has stood since the 1950s, is a core component of e-Merlin, a national network of seven interconnected radio telescopes managed by the University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, south of Manchester.

In its statement, UKRI justified the cut by saying the decision came out of “a rigorous prioritization process to focus investment on the areas that will deliver the greatest long-term scientific capability, impact and value for the U.K.” Public funding for the entire e-Merlin array will cease at the end of March 2028.

Leading figures from the British and international scientific community have quickly pushed back against the decision, warning that the cuts will cause irreversible damage to the U.K.’s standing in global astronomy research. Renowned particle physicist and broadcaster Brian Cox, based at the University of Manchester, described the funding cut as “devastating and irreversible.”

Paul Howarth, president of the U.K.’s Institute of Physics, called the latest cuts to physics funding that include Jodrell Bank “a terrible blow to the scientific community.” He has called on newly appointed Prime Minister Andy Burnham to reverse the decision, warning that the choice undermines Britain’s global reputation as a leading destination for scientific research, discovery and innovation.

“For the sake of U.K. physics and our national reputation as a place to do science, conduct research and innovate, we would urge the new government to review this ruinous set of decisions,” Howarth said.

The University of Manchester, which oversees operations of the e-Merlin network and the Lovell Telescope, has confirmed it is currently pursuing alternative funding from private businesses, philanthropic organizations, and potential new government grants to save the facility. However, university leaders have made clear that without securing alternative backing, the telescope will cease to operate as an active scientific research instrument after 2028.

Sarah Sharples, the university’s dean of science and engineering, told reporters: “But, if we don’t find those alternative sources of funding, then there is a risk that as of the end of March 2028, the Lovell Telescope will not be an actively functioning scientific facility for radio astronomy.”

Completed in 1957, the same year the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to orbit Earth, the Lovell Telescope has cemented its place as a trailblazer in global radio astronomy, a field that studies distant cosmic objects through the radio waves they emit. The telescope made history within months of opening by tracking the path of Sputnik as it orbited the planet, a feat that put Jodrell Bank on the global map. In the decades that followed, it received the first transmitted images from the lunar surface in 1966 during the early era of space exploration, and has enabled groundbreaking discoveries of distant galaxies, while advancing scientific understanding of black holes, quasars, pulsars and gravitational lenses.

During the Cold War, the telescope also served a critical national security role, operating as an early-warning system to detect incoming Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles. The site’s public engagement center, which welcomes thousands of visitors and school groups annually to learn about astronomy and space science, will not be impacted by the funding cuts.

Legendary German anatomist Gunther von Hagens, the polarizing innovator whose traveling ‘Body Worlds’ exhibits of plastinated human bodies sparked global fascination, fierce ethical debate and shifted public understanding of human anatomy, has passed away at the age of 81. His family and the Institute for Plastination, the research organization he founded, confirmed that von Hagens died on Friday, with no additional details about his death provided in the official statement released Monday. The anatomist had publicly disclosed a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis in 2010, having lived with the condition for more than a decade.

At the core of von Hagens’ decades-long career was his revolutionary development of the plastination technique, a preservation method he began refining in the 1970s. The process replaces natural bodily fluids with curable liquid plastic that hardens over time, stopping tissue decomposition while preserving the full structure of organs and cells. This breakthrough allowed von Hagens to create lifelike, durable displays of human bodies that brought internal anatomy out of medical school laboratories and into public view.

The first ‘Body Worlds’ exhibition launched in Japan in 1995, marking the start of a global cultural phenomenon. Two years later, the show opened in von Hagens’ native Germany, overcoming fierce opposition from religious leaders who tried to block the exhibit on the grounds that it disrespected the human dignity of the deceased. Defending his work, von Hagens emphasized that his goal was not to shock, but to educate the public: by seeing real human anatomy up close, everyday people could better understand how their own bodies function. “I touch here a taboo, which is our body, and nothing is so near as our body is to us,” he once said of his work, arguing that his exhibits forced necessary conversations about long-held cultural taboos surrounding death and the human form.

All bodies displayed in ‘Body Worlds’ are donated by individuals who explicitly agreed to give their bodies for public education and plastination. Even so, von Hagens faced persistent criticism from religious leaders and medical ethicists who accused him of crossing into sensationalism. Controversial displays — including a plastinated corpse posed riding a horse, and a pregnant donor preserving her eight-month fetus — drew particular condemnation. When the exhibit opened in Berlin in 2001, the Reverend Ernst Pulsfort of Berlin’s Catholic Academy argued von Hagens “plays with the corpses like a child plays with dolls,” claiming the show catered only to public curiosity for shock rather than genuine education.

Von Hagens doubled down on his unapologetic approach in 2002, when he conducted Britain’s first public autopsy in 170 years during a ‘Body Worlds’ run in London. Wearing his signature black fedora, the anatomist performed the procedure before a sold-out crowd of hundreds, ignoring official government warnings that the act violated public health rules. He called the event a “huge success,” while the head of ethics for the British Medical Association, Dr. Michael Wilkes, condemned it as “degrading and disrespectful.”

After making its United States debut in Los Angeles in 2004, ‘Body Worlds’ went on to tour dozens of major cities across the country, drawing millions of visitors. In 2006, von Hagens opened the Plastinarium, his purpose-built facility for plastination work, in the eastern German town of Guben.

Born Gunther Liebchen on January 10, 1945, in what is now western Poland, von Hagens’ early life was shaped by Cold War division. He began medical school in Jena, East Germany, but grew disillusioned with the communist regime and attempted to escape to West Germany. The attempt failed, and he was imprisoned before West Germany purchased his release in 1970, a common practice for political detainees during that era. He resumed his medical studies at the University of Luebeck, and later joined the pathology and anatomy institute at Heidelberg University in the 1970s, where he began his pioneering work on preservation. He adopted the surname von Hagens from his first wife Cornelia, a former classmate, and went on to have three children with her. His second wife, Angelina Whalley, currently leads the Institute for Plastination in Heidelberg and curates the ‘Body Worlds’ exhibitions.

In accordance with his long-stated wishes, von Hagens’ own body will undergo plastination following his death, the Monday statement confirmed, adding that his family will honor and carry out this request.