Why is April’s total solar eclipse historic?
The contiguous United States hasn’t seen a total solar eclipse since August 2017, but the seven-year difference between eclipses is "deceptive," Fred Espenak, a former astrophysicist from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and author of "Road Atlas for the Total Solar Eclipse of 2024," previously told ABC News.
"If you look previous to 2017, the last one was in 1979,” he said. "So, it's a little bit deceptive that these two eclipses were in seven years of each other."
![](https://i.abcnewsfe.com/a/41d0b410-9fd6-4288-a8a1-5dde3321e6d8/solar-eclipse1-gty-ml-240408_1712579727549_hpMain.jpg)
The next total solar eclipse to occur in the contiguous U.S. won't be until August 2044 in Montana and North Dakota, and the next to span coast-to-coast is slated for 2045, according to NASA.
Comparatively, 2024's total solar eclipse is "better" than 2017's, because the path of totality is almost 60% wider and the duration of the eclipse is about 60% longer, according to Espenak, who explained some locations within the path will experience up to four and a half minutes of the eclipse.
-ABC News’ Leah Sarnoff