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Best of 2024: Dinosaur Prepared to Safely Watch Solar Eclipse


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A large model dinosaur bursts out of a beige and gray building. The Alamosaurus wears a pair of eclipse glasses. In the foreground, a child lifts their phone to take a picture of the dinosaur.
NASA/Joel Kowsky

An adult Alamosaurus sports eclipse glasses outside of The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, on April 6, 2024. Two days later, the total solar eclipse swept across a narrow portion of the North American continent from Mexico’s Pacific coast to the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland, Canada. A partial solar eclipse was visible across the entire North American continent along with parts of Central America and Europe.

The NASA Headquarters photo team chose this image as one of the best from 2024. See more of the top 100 from last year on Flickr.

Image credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

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    • By NASA
      Credit: NASA The Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP), an advisory committee that reports to NASA and Congress, issued its 2024 annual report Thursday examining the agency’s safety performance, accomplishments, and challenges during the past year.
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      This year’s report reflects the panel’s continued focus on NASA’s strategies for risk management and safety culture in an environment of growing space commercialization. Specifically, the panel cites its 2021 recommendations for NASA on preparing for future challenges in a changing landscape, including the need to evaluate NASA’s approach to safety and technical risk and to evolve its role, responsibilities, and relationships with private sector and international partners.
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      It covers relevant areas of human health and medicine in space and the impact of budget constraints and uncertainty on safety.
      The annual report is based on the panel’s 2024 fact-finding and quarterly public meetings; direct observations of NASA operations and decision-making; discussions with NASA management, employees, and contractors; and the panel members’ experiences.
      Congress established the panel in 1968 to provide advice and make recommendations to the NASA administrator on safety matters after the 1967 Apollo 1 fire claimed the lives of three American astronauts.
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      Headquarters, Washington
      202-358-1600
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      Read more: The Moon and Eclipses

      Writers: Caela Barry, Ernie Wright, and Molly Wasser
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      By Mara Johnson-Groh
      NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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