They’re calling it Black Monday. For around two minutes on the morning of Monday, August 21 2017, a narrow swath of the USA will go dark, as the sun fully disappears behind the new moon. This rare total solar eclipse will be visible only from a narrow 70-mile band stretching from Oregon to South Carolina, known as the path of totality.

Such eclipse is touted to be rare of the rarest. Scientists are waiting for this eclipse considering it as an opportunity to study the sun’s atmosphere. In fact, NASA has already started the process.

NASA’s Cassini will crash into Saturn

NASA’s Cassini probe at Saturn has made a play for humankind’s most-loved robot since it arrived at Saturn in 2004.

It has discovered icy plumes on moon Enceladus, taken jaw-dropping images of Saturn, and its probe Huygens landed on the moon Titan where it discovered lakes of methane. All good things must come to an end, however, and after a year spent taking deep dives towards the planetary surface, Cassini will end its 12 year-long mission by crashing into the planet on September 15.

Published in Dawn, Young World, January 7th, 2017