The free Totality app was created by Big Kid Science, which subsequently donated the app to the American Astronomical Society (AAS).
For additional eclipse information beyond what you find within the Totality app, please visit the American Astronomical Society (AAS) Eclipse Pages (eclipse.aas.org).
Perhaps you are wondering why there is a section on global warming in an app about eclipses. The answer is at least four-fold:
- Historically, there is a deep connection between the two topics. Eclipses have helped scientists understand the Sun, and because the Sun is the ultimate source of the heat and energy for Earth’s weather and climate, this understanding is crucial to our understanding of global warming.
- The fact that we can now predict eclipse paths precisely for thousands of years in the past or future offers a great illustration of the predictive power and reliability of science, something which is widely misunderstood in this age when so much disinformation has been spread about critical scientific topics.
- In particular, eclipse prediction is based on what we call scientific models, meaning representations of nature based on known physical laws and observational data. The fact that eclipses occur exactly as our scientific models predict should inspire greater public confidence in in the fact that scientists really do know what they are doing, and that when the scientific community tells you of other things that are likely to happen — such as global warming — it is worth listening carefully.
- One of the creators of this app has also created materials to help you understand global warming, so we want to share those with you. Please visit the link below, where you will find answers to any questions you may have about the the science, consequences, and solutions to the important problem of global warming.
Visit author Jeffrey Bennett’s Global Warming Primer web site, where you should find most of the questions you may have about global warming answered in a clear and simple way.