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December 23, 2016
Q. In late summer 2017, a 75-mile-diameter circular shadow will race across the U.S. at supersonic speeds from the Pacific to the Atlantic coasts, briefly darkening and cooling portions of 12 states along the way. What is this rare event?
A. The first total solar eclipse to traverse the continental U.S. in nearly 100 years will occur on Aug. 21, 2017. The shadow is that of the moon, cast onto Earth's surface as it comes between Earth and the sun. Over a period of about an hour and a half, the moon will gradually obscure the sun until, at totality — lasting only about two and a half minutes — the body of the sun will disappear, its luminous wispy corona haloing the moon.
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