Because the retina lacks pain receptors, during a solar eclipse, those watching without protective eyewear may suffer from permanent damage without realizing it.

Eclipse glasses protect the eyes from overexposure to the sun's ultraviolet, blue, and infrared light, as a person's instinct to look away from the sun is diminished when it's partly blocked.

Just as directly observing a solar eclipse without protective glasses can cause permanent eye damage, photographing an eclipse requires a specialized filter to prevent damaging your camera.

Because the half of Earth that faces the sun is larger than the area of the shadow cast by the moon during a solar eclipse, observers may experience a total, annular, or partial eclipse.

Solar eclipses are a cosmic coincidence because the moon is 400 times smaller than the sun but about 400 times closer to Earth, allowing it to block sunlight for those on Earth within its shadow.

A solar eclipse viewer can be made from everyday objects, such as a cereal box, aluminum foil, tape, and paper, to safely view the cosmic event.

Research shows that during total solar eclipses, some animals change their behavior to match their nighttime activities.

NASA's Near-Earth Object Surveyor can detect asteroids coming from the sun

Telescopes directed at the sun or lacking heat shields may become damaged, limiting our ability to monitor potentially dangerous objects coming from that direction. The NEO Surveyor is built to overcome this problem and spot asteroids that reflect as little as 5% of incoming light.

The first scientifically useful photograph of a total solar eclipse was taken in Königsberg, Prussia, on July 28, 1851, using a silver-coated copper plate with a light-sensitive chemical layer.

One theory claims the retinae of SAD patients may fail to adjust to less light in winter

Most people’s eyes become more sensitive to light in the winter months, but some do not. This failure to adjust causes ripple effects on those individuals’ biological clocks. This Ted-ED video provides a clear, brief, narrative explanation of the condition in six minutes.

Learn about the sun's corona, which is nonlethal despite a temperature of millions of degrees

The outermost layer of the sun's atmosphere is best seen during a solar eclipse, when the moon blocks the much brighter (and significantly cooler) solar surface. Despite the high-energy particles in the corona moving fast enough to escape the sun's gravity and gradually become solar wind, their density is too low to contribute meaningfully to the region's overall radiation.

While solar eclipses were considered ominous throughout history, multiple cultures explained the celestial event as the result of mythical creatures nearly consuming the sun.

Some maps may incorrectly identify the boundaries of a solar eclipse's totality because they assume the Earth is a smooth surface.

Changes in vision or eye pain can be early MS symptoms

This occurs due to myelin degradation around the optic nerve, impairing its ability to transmit visual information to the brain. Individuals may especially experience eye symptoms after exercising or taking a hot shower because boosted body temperatures slow down nerve function in nerves already damaged by MS.

Why Earth would become a more deadly environment without the ozone layer

The ozone layer blocks almost all of the sun's harmful, including dangerous UVC rays that can damage cells by breaking chemical bonds. Without it, rates of skin cancer, crop failures, oceanic die-offs, and widespread ecosystem collapse would increase significantly, making Earth largely uninhabitable.

Vision experts generally don't recommend blue-light-blocking glasses because there's no scientific evidence that the light from computer screens damages eyes.

Blood moons only occur during total lunar eclipses, when the Earth blocks the sun, but its atmosphere lets redder parts of sunlight through to reflect off the lunar surface.

Proteins with limited light sensitivity prevent humans from seeing all types of light

Specialized photoreceptor cells in the retina called cones each possess photopigments that activate when exposed to three ranges of visible light. Other forms of electromagnetic radiation outside the activation range do not generate signals for processing in the brain, thereby limiting average human vision to approximately 10 million colors.

Global eclipse tourism is a multibillion-dollar industry, with the 2024 total solar eclipse across North America estimated to have generated $6B in economic activity across regions along its path.

As deposits build up under the eye, the retina bends with macular degeneration

The retina bends due to the accumulation of proteins and other materials beneath it. That's considered the milder "dry" form of macular degeneration. Another form, called "wet" macular degeneration, is caused by abnormal blood vessels leaking fluid into the eye, which can rapidly affect central vision.

The macula is a small area in the center of the retina

This part of the eye—roughly the bullseye of the back of the eye—is responsible for processing the central vision of the eye. Degradation of the macula, formally called macular degeneration, leads to symptoms including blurred vision, the need for brighter lighting, and difficulty recognizing faces. The condition doesn't affect peripheral vision, but if you lose central vision, you can still be considered blind.

Visualize the path of every solar eclipse from 1900 to 2099 and see what each looks like when observed from different locations on Earth.

While the sun, moon, and stars rise and set from east to west due to Earth's rotation, the moon's eastward revolution around the Earth causes its shadow to move from west to east during a solar eclipse.

Understanding why charged particles from the sun protect Earth from more dangerous particles

The solar wind engulfs the solar system in a protective bubble called the heliosphere, which was first theorized in the late 1950s based on studies of cosmic rays—high-energy particles traveling through space at near light speed. The heliosphere shields the solar system from much of this ionizing radiation originating elsewhere in the Milky Way.

View historical records of solar observations and discoveries, from telescopes in the early 1600s revealing sunspots to NASA's Parker Solar Probe photographing the sun from within its outer corona in 2025.

Although the moon passes between the sun and Earth each month, its orbit is tilted by five degrees, preventing Earth from experiencing a solar eclipse each month.

In 2025, the European Space Agency created the first artificial solar eclipse in space when one spacecraft cast a shadow onto another spacecraft to enable observations of the sun's outermost atmosphere.

If the sun disappeared, we would not know about it for 8 minutes and 20 seconds, at which point the Earth would suddenly move in a straight line on its way out of the solar system.

View photographs of solar eclipses on Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn caused by the moons of these planets blocking sunlight.

People with blue eyes appear to be at elevated risk of developing macular degeneration, perhaps because more light can penetrate their eyes.

Electric grids that rely on solar power must compensate for reduced electricity generation during solar eclipses.

Mineral and chemical sunscreens protect differently, but both guard against UV damage.

Jaundice, which can make the skin and eyes appear yellow, is a buildup of bilirubin, a waste product that forms when old red blood cells break down.

The impacts of the solar maximum on Earth, from telecommunications to auroras

During the peak of the sun's 11-year cycle, plasma emissions stronger than the average stream of particles from the sun can compress and distort the Earth's magnetic field, allowing auroras to be seen farther from the poles. Distortions in the ionized layer of Earth's atmosphere can also alter the path of communication transmissions through the air. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

High solar activity can produce pink and purple auroras

Although less common, energetic enough charged particles from the sun that descend to an altitude of about 100 kilometers (62 miles) can strike a mixture of ionized and neutral nitrogen molecules, causing them to emit red and blue light, which our eyes perceive as purple.

High-powered red light therapy—delivered directly to nerve fibers via a fiber optic needle—has been used in recent experimental research to suppress pain.

NASA's guide to solar flares and how they work

Flares happen when the powerful magnetic fields in and around the sun reconnect. They're usually associated with active regions, and carry the potential to disrupt electronics on Earth.

Over thousands of years, the frequency of solar eclipses is greatest around the Arctic and Antarctic Circles and lowest near the equator.

A composite of telescope images of the sun, which each reveal unique solar features

While traditional cameras can reveal sunspots—cooler regions on the sun's surface—in visible light, x-ray detectors can highlight explosions of high-energy plasma and magnetic fields known as coronal mass ejections. Hydrogen-alpha filters can reveal clouds and filaments of material suspended in magnetic fields above the sun's surface.

Every eclipse is preceded or followed by another eclipse, separated by about two weeks and alternating between solar and lunar types.

Space weather phenomena, including solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and solar wind, are driven by the sun's magnetic field and can affect Earth's ground- and space-based technological systems.

Breaking down sunlight and why the sun appears yellow despite emitting green light the most

This peak intensity is produced alongside a spectrum of other colors, which, when combined, make the sun appear white in space. Since Earth's atmosphere scatters bluer and greener wavelengths of light more than red and orange wavelengths, sunlight reaching Earth's surface appears yellow, while the sky appears blue. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

Watch how doctors examine leprosy patients for signs of vision impairment

Clinicians must screen for symptoms of eye and vision damage in leprosy patients, including loss of sensation, reduced blink reflex, and inability to close or keep the eyes closed.

Could the world's largest solar storm happen again?

In 1859, the world witnessed the most intense solar storm in recorded history. The electromagnetic deluge of dust and gas lit up the night sky and sparked fires, disrupting Earth's magnetic field and putting on a show for the millions. If a storm with a similar intensity today occurred, scientists believe it would be catastrophic for our communications systems. Learn what would happen if the Carrington Event happened again here.

A 1974 Science News article proclaimed that within a decade, light therapy would be on par with traditional drugs.

In a first, eye prosthesis has restored sight to macular generation patients

In a clinical trial, 27 of 32 participants with advanced macular degeneration regained enough vision to read books, food labels, and subway signs about a year after receiving a prosthetic retina device. This is the first device to restore functional vision to patients with incurable vision loss, though in this case they can only see in black and white, with no shades in between.

The UV index measures the sun's ultraviolet radiation risk on a scale of 1 to 11+

The tool takes into account geographical location, time, elevation, and cloud coverage to help individuals plan their daily activities around the sun's peak UV exposure times, which occur from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. A value at or above 6 requires sunscreen (SPF 15+), shelter, or UPF clothing

Usher Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder, causes progressive hearing and vision loss, and people with the condition sometimes eventually become deaf and blind.

Protecting astronauts against space radiation

Outside the protective atmosphere of Earth, astronauts are constantly bombarded by radiation, which, among other dangers, increases the risk cancer. While those of us on Earth can mitigate the effects of similar radiation by limiting exposure,...

Why Earth will be made uninhabitable by the sun far sooner than when the sun dies

The star has enough fuel to continue fusing hydrogen into helium for another 5 billion years, but the gradual increase in core temperature from these reactions will brighten the sun by 10% every billion years. Some models predict that the increased radiation will be enough to vaporize all of Earth's surface water about 1 billion years from now, long before the sun becomes a red giant and disintegrates the planet.

Just before and just after a total solar eclipse, sunlight can pass through uneven terrain on the lunar surface, producing disconnected bits of light around the moon called Baily's beads.