Solar eclipse updates: When is the next total solar eclipse?

There will not be another solar eclipse in North America for 20 years.

Last Updated: April 8, 2024, 4:24 PM EDT

A total solar eclipse passed over North America on April 8, creating a path of totality that cast parts of Mexico, the United States and Canada in darkness.

About 31 million people live along the path of totality and witnessed the total eclipse, while the majority of Americans saw at least a partial eclipse.

Latest headlines:

Here's how the news is developing.
Apr 08, 2024, 4:24 PM EDT

Partial solar eclipse captured behind Statue of Liberty

The Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor is seen in the path of the partial solar eclipse. In New York State, the path of totality spans 124 miles across 29 counties.

A partial eclipse shines through the Statue of Liberty, New York, April 8, 2024.
Gary Hershorn/ABC News

Apr 08, 2024, 3:53 PM EDT

Stunning total solar eclipse on display in Niagara Falls

A stunning view of the total solar eclipse was captured at Niagara Falls State Park in New York. A cloud of light appeared above the sun as the moon eclipsed the celestial body during totality.

Below the eclipse, red coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are seen peaking out behind the moon.

The moon eclipses the sun during a total solar eclipse across North America, at Niagara Falls State Park in Niagara Falls, New York, on April 8, 2024.
Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

Daylight plunged into a blue twilight at the state park as skywatchers experienced totality.

People assemble to view a total solar eclipse, where the moon will blot out the sun, at Niagara Falls, New York, April 8, 2024.
Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters

Apr 08, 2024, 3:38 PM EDT

Sun’s coronal mass ejection seen during total solar eclipse in Illinois

In Carbondale, Illinois, the sun’s corona was seen glittering behind the moon as it eclipsed the sun near peak totality.

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are expulsions of plasma, threaded by magnetic field lines, that are ejected from the sun's corona, or outer atmosphere, according to NASA. CMEs look like twisted rope, dubbed "flux rope" by scientists.

The moon blots out the sun, during a total solar eclipse, as seen from Carbondale, Illinois, April 8, 2024.
Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

Apr 08, 2024, 2:38 PM EDT

Rural Oklahoma towns welcome thousands for total eclipse

Two small towns in rural Oklahoma are welcoming an estimated 60,000 to 100,000 people to Beavers Bend State Park as visitors come to witness the solar total eclipse.

Typically, the towns of Broken Bow and Hochatown have year-round populations of 2,500 and 150, respectively.

Oklahoma Secretary of Tourism, Wildlife and Heritage Shelley Zumwalt told ABC News that McCurtain County has been preparing for about a year and a half, having meetings with state and local public safety officials and other agencies to deal with the influx of visitors and traffic.

People wait for the total solar eclipse to begin in Beavers Bend State Park in Oklahoma on April 8. 2024.
Chase Horn/Oklahoma Tourism Department

She said she's met people who came to the state park from across the U.S. and from Europe, and said she hopes it leads to people returning after the eclipse.

"Just today we've had people from Norway, Denmark, California, Hawaii, Tennessee that I've just seen passing through our lodge this morning, which is phenomenal," Zumwalt said.

"But, in a broader sense, I think that post-pandemic, a lot of people are looking for vacations that kind of take them out of the city and to maybe more of a quieter place and we have a lot of that in Oklahoma and see the tremendous response from just this event has really solidified in my mind that we have something special," she continued.

Related Topics