By Aliza Chasan, Sara Moniuszko, Luis Giraldo, Kerry Breen, Sarah Maddox | CBS NEWS/CBS Colorado
The sky will darken for millions in the U.S. on Monday as the 2024 total solar eclipse arrives and works its way across a swath of the country.
A solar eclipse happens when the moon passes between the Earth and the sun, casting a shadow that blocks out the light from the sun. The sun will appear to vanish behind the moon for minutes at a time as the eclipse travels along its “path of totality,” starting on Mexico’s Pacific Coast and moving northeast through more than a dozen states, from Texas to Maine, and into eastern Canada.
More than 31 million people live along the path of totality, and many more are flying or driving to witness the April 8 spectacle in person. Outside the path of totality, the rest of the continental U.S. will get to see a partial eclipse (if skies are clear) as the moon blocks a portion of the sun. It will be decades before the next total solar eclipse appears in the U.S.