An Interview with National Geographic Explorer Dr. Ved Chirayath from ‘Eclipse Across America’

Key Art for ‘Eclipse Across America’ and the Photo of Dr. Ved Chirayath Courtesy of ABC and National Geographic.

Dr. Ved Chirayath is a highly decorated scientist, that has made incredible contributions to the world scientific technologies. He currently serves as director of the Aircraft Center for Earth Studies (ACES) and Vetlesen Professor of Earth Sciences, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Miami. He will be participating in tomorrow’s Eclipse Across America programming event on ABC News and National Geographic TV and we here at NTG had the distinct honor of sitting down with Ved to discuss the eclipse and so much more.
 
John Betancourt: Let’s like a little bit about what got you into science.
 
Ved Chirayath: Yeah, so I grew up in Los Angeles, and I had sort of an amazing opportunity to go to the NASA JPL open house when I was a kid. And I watched the Mars Sojourner rover landing live and got to meet Buzz Aldrin (Laughs) and that kind of hooked me on science and being able to explore our universe and see what impacts one could have. And I knew when I was about maybe four or five, I wanted to work at NASA and have a career in studying the universe. And in high school, I had come up with an idea to try to detect planets using a transit method. So, we can't directly see planets outside of our solar system, but we can, if they're fortunately aligned, we can try to see if the stars dip in the amount of light that they output, indicating that it's kind of eclipsing it just like the moon is about to. And so that led me down this long path that took about four years of building my own telescopes and camera systems. And finally, being able to detect a new extrasolar planet, outside of our solar system about 150 light years away, and that took me to the international science fair, and I just kind of got hooked on science, because a lot of people were telling me “No, you can't do this, you know, if you're a kid,” but I had some really amazing teachers and mentors at universities and the first taste you get of being able to actually make some contribution or see discovery for the first time. It is a one of the most remarkable things you can experience on Earth. And so that kind of got me full bore into science and looking for life elsewhere in the universe, developing technologies and trying to better understand the natural world.
 
John Betancourt: Wow, talk about truly landing your dreams. That’s just incredible.
 
Ved Chirayath: I think that's the amazing thing about our country, right? It truly is a land of possibility. Both my parents were immigrants, from France, and from India, and from their perspective, having the kind of opportunities that we have here, even though you know, things are very difficult sometimes, and we grew up in a very kind of poor background. But education, and the ability to succeed was kind of uniquely enabled by the United States and being able to pursue your dream and find people that want to support you along that path, including, in my case, you know, essentially NASA, I went to school to study theoretical physics, in actually Russia for four and a half years.  And then came back to Stanford and finished my bachelor's, master's and PhD in astrophysics and physics, and then in aeronautics and astronautics. And then I got hired at NASA, kind of while I was doing my PhD, and then now kind of still inventing technologies for NASA and working on a number of NASA projects, while also being a professor and National Geographic Explorer at the University of Miami. So, I just want to offer that… as advice for kids. I didn't want to meander too much.
 
John Betancourt: So, obviously science is your passion, what is it about science that continues to excite you after all these years?
 
Ved Chirayath: I think science, I mean, in the most basic terms, it is one of our few chances at surviving as a species, we are still dependent on knowledge, right? Knowledge that goes beyond our genetic ability to incorporate knowledge, a lot of organisms that have evolved on Earth have done so for billions of years. But many times, have been completely wiped out because their genome could not adapt fast enough to a changing environment. And we are one of kind of the final generation of species, and we're not the only one, there's multiple other, I think highly intelligent species on our planet, that have figured out a way to harness and save information outside of our genome. So, we teach people, we have schools, we write books, we save information, and the internet that allows us to combat things like the COVID-19 epidemic. It allows us to deflect asteroids that might hit Earth, there was a recent demonstration of that exact technology by NASA and those are paradigm shifting things for a species, right? But dinosaurs did not have that, and that… did not end well for them. So, for me, I mean science is still fundamentally about, I think it's embedded in every person, we have an innate curiosity about what is around the corner, how things work. And science is just one method of understanding and making sense of the natural world using some method to not go completely mad. So, you can document the observations, you can have a theory, try to test it, sometimes — or most often it's wrong. Sometimes it's somewhat right, and you keep iterating. But in the process, you gain this knowledge about how the universe works, which I think is what everyone is really asking on this planet.
 
John Betancourt: Now shifting gears, a little bit to obviously, Monday's big event, and it really has become such an event. I mean, I cannot remember a time in my lifetime, where we've seen this kind of just everybody getting behind making sure everyone gets to experience the eclipse in some form or fashion, like this live event. Why do you think there's suddenly captivated us in this manner?
 
Ved Chirayath: I think it's… perhaps the world was sort of looking for another global phenomena to celebrate, there's a lots of eclipses that occur, but we're really lucky to get the opportunity to have the moon be exactly the angular size that it is in the sky relative to the sun, it need not be, it could be slightly further away, and it is moving away from us around four centimeters per year. But there will be a point where you will not have total eclipses anymore on Earth, right? It will just be annular eclipse, where most of the sun is still shining through. And it doesn't -- you don't see the solar corona. And so, I think there's a there's a timeliness of it, it's really special to get this opportunity. And not many solar systems do, some might get more eclipses, but you know, some just don't get much at all. And then the other is, I think the sky is something that is accessible to everybody, right? There's no limit really, on what you can imagine and see. And that accessibility, I think is really exciting that no matter where you are on Earth, you will eventually get some eclipse. You know, it may not be this eclipse that, you know, you might not have necessarily totality, I'm looking at the weather forecast, and also just tempering my expectations. But like, you know, its getting people excited about something bigger, right, and something that has an impact, globally. And I think that that kind of mindset, really helps us as a species survive things like, climate change, survive big, global universal phenomena and have an appreciation for them. And sort of an awe of how they work.

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John Betancourt: What does it meant to you, to be involved in this ambitious broadcast?
 
Ved Chirayath: So, I had, I had a great opportunity, for me, like the transit of one body in front of the other was how I started my scientific career. So, for me, it's really special to get to be a part of it and document some of the science that's going on, I'm bringing a number of my telescopes out to Texas, I’m hopping on a plane pretty soon, trying to take my telescopes as carry on and hope that they don't question me too much. (Laughs) But you get to see things you know, during the eclipse, specifically, the sun's outer atmosphere, the corona, which is actually hotter than the surface of the sun, by a factor of like a thousand, it's quite remarkable. That completely dictates space weather in our neighborhood. So, there have been multiple solar events, solar flares, and provinces that have knocked out our communication systems. They've downed the power grid; they can electrify wires that cause intense aurora. And basically, we’re at the whim of that solar atmosphere. So, studying it, being able to capture it, using events like this really helps us understand how to predict solar events when they occur, create some sort of contingency plans when they to occur, shutting down satellites, putting them into sleep mode, making sure power grids are shielded or prevented from overload. Those are really, I think, cool observations that can be made uniquely by eclipses like this.
 
John Betancourt: Since the eclipse and commentary and lessons are reaching the masses tomorrow via this event, what do you hope this broadcast does for science in general?
 
Ved Chirayath: I hope it gets an entire new generation hooked on science and the ability to make predictions about the natural world, right? Go out and measure them, be a part of it, realize that you can make an impact and you can make a contribution to the world. That really would be one of the best takeaways for me. And it's kind of… I wish there was an eclipse almost every year across the United States because I feel like there would be a lot more… space explorers, ocean explorers, people that are motivated to go out and try to study and protect the natural world. Because it's these kinds of events that make you realize how much you're at the whim of chance, you know? So many things are lining up just right. But they could be just wrong and then you don't have a planet or a habitable atmosphere. So, I think that would be my best outcome. Last eclipse, we got to see all these little kids, you know, just look up in awe and see this giant magnet in the sky, which is the sun and see the magnetic field lines, just like they see, when they take a fridge magnet and put some iron filings on it in their kitchen. That connection of like, “Whoa, there is like a giant magnet in space” is something that I think changes your life forever, you forever start looking at things in the natural world with that mindset of “Is there a lot more to this than I'm seeing? Most people don't spend a day looking at the sun (Laughter) But here, they do. And you get to see something very unique.
 
John Betancourt: Now you of course, are well versed in this kind of event, an expert, really. And since you get to kind of watch it from afar, what are you most excited for people to experience during the eclipse?
 
Ved Chirayath: I think first… there's a physical sensation, right? When an eclipse occurs, it's moving across the country at around 1300 miles an hour. It’s Fast. There's actually two NASA aircraft that we'll be following and trying to make measurements but they can't keep up with that shadow. And as a result, there's like a physical whoosh of air because there's this temperature dip right, wherever you find the shadow, so you physically feel something. So even if you're visually impaired, you can experience the eclipse, it suddenly gets cold like nighttime cold. And the animals go a bit berserk. So, we're going to this batcave, one of the reasons why we're going there is to observe kind of the behavior of these animals and other creatures during that event. I kind of… I'm curious if the cicadas will also decide to emerge early. But I don't know, I think that physical sensation is very exciting. Getting to see science in action, like a giant – like you can actually predict when you're looking with eclipse glasses at the sun, you'll see some sunspots, it's an active period of activity right now. And you can watch the sunspots kind of rotate around the sun, and then you know which direction the sun is spinning.
 
So, when the eclipse occurs, you actually know where the poles will be on this big magnet. And you'll see the solar corona and this big magnet. So, I get a lot of people to kind of look out for that and say, “Okay, can I make some prediction and then see it validated in real time.” That's a fun phenomenon. And then, you know, I also remind people that even the top scientific minds, you know, there's a ton that is still unknown. And some of these events are quite frustrating because you will make an observation and you'll realize, “Oh, I don't quite have the full picture,” right, there's a phenomenon called Magnetic Reconnection, which is one of the most powerful events on the sun that spits out solar flares that cause these big disruptions on Earth. And it's still quite difficult to predict. You know, it's very humbling every time, and science is a lesson in humility, you make some advance, maybe one step two steps forward, and then you're pulled one step back, because you realize your, your theory or model doesn't really account for everything, you have to kind of delve deeper, but it's, it's a nice process.
 
John Betancourt: Last question I have for you today, are there any simple tips you want to pass along to folks when it comes to their experience to make sure that it's as safe and as fun as can be?
 
Ved Chirayath: Yeah, don't look at the sun without eclipse glasses, or a pinhole camera, or a camera obscura. That's where you can just put a hole in a cardboard box and project an image of the sun onto the ground or a piece of paper, you definitely -- the human eye is not evolved to look expressly at the sun. However, if you're in the path of totality, then you can look up at the sun during the moment of complete totality. And you'll know that it's the top of it because the sky will go quite completely dark as if it were nighttime, you'll actually see some stars. And that's the time you can look up at the sun and see the corona, which is that outer atmosphere. If you look closely at the rim of where the moon is occulting the sun you'll actually see some of these prominent flares on the edge, they'll show up in red. And you can see them with the naked eye, and then at that point, I highly encourage you to take off your glasses look at it. And then the minute you see the sun peeking out again, you know, put your glasses back on or look away from the sun and you'll have an amazing experience.
 
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

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