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That iconic Trump meme may save eyes this eclipse

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6 months ago

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About seven years ago, photographers grabbed their cameras for the rare chance to shoot a total solar eclipse, with the sun’s wispy atmosphere revealed against the dark sky. 

But perhaps the most memorable photos taken during 2017’s Great American Eclipse were not of the corona but of former President Donald Trump stepping out on the White House portico to experience the space event for himself.

In an intriguing twist, the famed Trump eclipse photos may have served as one of the farthest-reaching, albeit unintended, public service campaigns about the dangers of staring at the sun. NASA and several medical associations have tried to spread the word that there’s nothing fake news about solar retinopathy, (although, OK, not in those words).

SEE ALSO:

A solar eclipse can cook your eyes. Here’s when to put the glasses on.
President Donald Trump looking at the sun

President Donald Trump squinted and pointed up at the exposed sun on Aug. 21, 2017.
Credit: NICHOLAS KAMM / AFP via Getty Images

On Aug. 21, 2017, Trump stole a couple of glances at the exposed sun, seemingly unperturbed by the warnings from ophthalmologists and his political handlers. With a grimace tugging at the corners of his mouth, he squinted skyward. His protective glasses, which he later put on, were nestled in his jacket pocket. 

“Don’t look,” an aide shouted from below. 

Too late. A meme was born. 

Here’s what added fuel to the fire: Hours before the president even stepped outside, a user on the social platform X, then known as Twitter, posted a pair of fake, satirical New York Times news alerts claiming that Trump had “suffered permanent eye damage” after staring at the solar eclipse, according to KnowYourMeme.com, a company that collects and researches internet phenomena. Within 24 hours, that tweet, by @leyawn, received tens of thousands of likes and retweets.

“It was kind of like a Nostradamus pre-meme about something that would later become a meme,” said Don Caldwell, Know Your Meme’s editor-in-chief. 

And in true meme fashion, it spawned a life of its own. The front page of the New York Daily News the next day featured one of the photos with the headline “Not Too Bright!” 

President Donald Trump squinting during the solar eclipse

A Twitter user seemed to predict this would happen, adding fuel to the internet meme.
Credit: Mark Wilson / Getty Images

Now the country is in deja vu. It’s “decision 2024,” and the experts believe Americans will be inclined to make a good choice, thanks in part to these famous images: We’re talking, of course, about the decision to wear solar shades or not on April 8, when a swath of the United States will experience yet another total eclipse. 

At first, the 2017 Trump photos and video footage made Dr. Ralph Chou unhappy. Chou is a Canadian who led the international charge to make safety standards for solar eclipse glasses. But looking at the sun during an eclipse is actually a common foible, he said, and sometimes a temptation too strong to veto. 

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“The Donald was no different from anybody else in that respect,” Chou told Mashable. 

And added: “It just underscores that nobody who is standing under the sun is immune to these kinds of things.” 

President Donald Trump holding up his eclipse glasses

President Donald Trump, alongside first lady Melania Trump, shows the crowd he indeed has solar eclipse shades.
Credit: NICHOLAS KAMM / AFP via Getty Images

In the vast political genre of memes, most are wielded by the detractors, intending to paint their opponent as incompetent or unfit. But on the web, one viral photo can immortalize a moment — and its impact can be more than a punchline. It can even unify a population under a shared idea. 

Like, say, looking directly at a partial eclipse is unwise? 

“Memes are very powerful tools for spreading messages, sentiments, tribal bonding,” Caldwell said. “There’s all kinds of things that memes can do, and I think this one likely had many of those things going on.” 

The moon will sweep its shadow over the continent as it crosses in front of the sun on April 8, starting on Mexico’s western coast, arcing from Texas to Maine, entering Canada through Ontario, and exiting the continent from Newfoundland. Major U.S. cities in this corridor, known as the “path of totality,” will include Dallas, Indianapolis, and Cleveland.

When — and only when — the moon completely conceals the surface of the sun can people in the path remove their protective eyewear without risk of visual impairment or blindness. 

The retina’s job is to convert light into electrical signals for the brain. When a person looks at the sun without protective solar filters, the radiation can easily overtax the retinas. As a consequence, cells start to suffer chemical attacks and heat up to the point of frying the tissue.


“It just underscores that nobody who is standing under the sun is immune to these kinds of things.”

Some people think as long as they just make quick glances, they’ll be fine. But experts say several little peeks during the day can be as harmful as a long stare. Some folks also believe if their eyes don’t hurt, they haven’t caused any damage. But retinas don’t have pain receptors. 

President Donald Trump putting on solar eclipse filters

And the protective eyewear goes on.
Credit: Mark Wilson / Getty Images

However people are getting the message about potential solar eye injuries, it seems to be working, based on how White House onlookers reacted to Trump’s momentary slip, Chou said. 

“I also heard a lot of people reminding him right away, as soon as they saw what he was doing, ‘Get your glasses on, get your glasses on,’ and he did,” Chou said. “For once, he actually listened.” 

The question now is whether he’ll don the protective glasses from the campaign trail on April 8.

“It should be on one of those betting websites: Is he going to look at the eclipse again?” Caldwell said. “I wonder what the over-under would be.” 





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SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn Crew Returns After Historic Mission; ISS Astronaut Captures Epic Picture

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September 17, 2024

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The five-day Polaris Dawn mission concluded on September 15 and all four astronauts have returned safely to Earth. At 1:08 pm IST yesterday, SpaceX confirmed that the Dragon spacecraft made a successful splashdown off the coast of Florida in the Atlantic Ocean.

What followed was happy visuals of the astronauts greeting the recovery crew as they stepped out of the spacecraft.

“Welcome back to Earth!” posted SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on X.

The crew included Shift4 payments system founder and billionaire – Jared Isaacman, retired US Navy pilot – Scott Poteet, Senior Space Operations Engineer at SpaceX – Sarah Gillis and Lead Space Operations Engineer at SpaceX – Anna Menon.

They spent five days in space after the launch on September 10 and reached the highest Earth orbit since the Apollo missions.

ALSO SEE: SpaceX Shares First Views Of Earth As Polaris Dawn Reaches Highest Orbit In 50 Years

Astronaut photographs Dragon’s stunning return

NASA astronaut Don Pettit, from the International Space Station (ISS), captured the Dragon spacecraft on his camera as it reentered Earth’s atmosphere for a splashdown.

“Polaris Dawn entry this morning. I photographed it at 7:23 am GMT from the Cupola on ISS. In addition to the multi-colored entry trail over Florida, the basic cone shape of the Dragon capsule can be seen,” Pettit captioned his post.

Pettit arrived at the station with Russian cosmonauts Aleksey Ovchinin with Ivan Vagner on September 12. The trio launched to space from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Polaris Dawn concludes

The Polaris Dawn mission was the first of three in the Polaris Program. The entire program is being financed by Isaacman and intends to demonstrate new technologies, support development toward exploration of the Moon and Mars while supporting the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

In Polaris Dawn, the astronauts conducted 36 science experiments to gauge changes in the human body in outer space and performed world’s first spacewalk on a private mission. The objective of the spacewalk was to test mobility of SpaceX’s new suits.

The second mission, timeline of which will be announced soon, will build upon the success of Polaris Dawn.

Interestingly, the third mission will be a crewed flight on the world’s biggest rocket – Starship, that SpaceX is building for its missions to the Moon and Mars.

ALSO SEE: SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn Astronauts Complete Historic First Private Spacewalk; Videos Released

(Image: X/@DonPettit/@SpaceX)





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NASA rover peers up at space, sees strange Mars moon and distant Earth

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9 hours ago

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September 17, 2024

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Robotic Martians can see blue Earth in Mars‘ sky.

The Curiosity rover, a car-sized NASA robot looking to find evidence of past habitability on the Red Planet, recently snapped an image of Mars’ misshapen moon, Phobos, and Earth next to each other.

“It’s the first time an image of the two celestial bodies have been captured together from the surface of Mars,” the space agency explained.

SEE ALSO:

NASA scientist viewed first Voyager images. What he saw gave him chills.

In the photo below, you can spot a ridge of Mars’ Mount Sharp at the bottom of the image. The upper right contains both Phobos — a moon 17 miles long — and Earth, which from some 200 million miles away appears as a bright speck of bluish light. (The second image is a blown-up view of the two objects.)


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“From the rover’s perspective, the inset area would be about half the width of a thumb held at arm’s length,” NASA explained.

The moon Phobos and Earth seen in the upper right.

The moon Phobos and Earth seen in the upper right.
Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS

A zoomed-in view of Phobos, on left, and Earth.

A zoomed-in view of Phobos, on left, and Earth.
Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS

The Curiosity rover captured this image on Sept. 9, 2024, during its 4,295th Martian day (called a “sol”) on Mars. It’s been rumbling over Martian terrain for over 12 years, and is currently ascending the 3.4-mile (5.5-kilometer) high Mount Sharp, a place that once experienced dramatic Martian floods.

Compared to our moon, which appears almost perfectly round, Phobos is misshapen. It’s not massive enough for its gravity to form a sphere. What’s more, Phobos has been hit time and time again by potent space rocks. “Phobos was nearly shattered by a giant impact, and has gouges from thousands of meteorite impacts,” NASA noted. The glaring impact site is Stickney crater, which is 5.6 miles (nine kilometers) wide.

As Curiosity continues its long slog up Mount Sharp, its robotic sibling, the Perseverance rover, is sleuthing the irradiated Martian surface for past evidence of microbial life. This means “chemical signatures and structures that could possibly have been formed by life billions of years ago,” the agency said.

Still today, no evidence of life has been found on Mars — though NASA has spotted some compelling geologic leads. It’s clear, however, that the now-desert planet once teemed with lakes and rivers, back when it was a warmer, more hospitable, world.





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Sunita Williams Embraces Her Unexpected ISS Extension; ‘This Is My Happy Place’

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September 17, 2024

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Astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore joined NASA for a press conference on September 13 with updates about their stay in space. While addressing the world from the International Space Station (ISS), the duo acknowledged the situation they are in but said they are not disappointed.

Williams and Wilmore launched to the ISS on June 5 for an 8-day mission but the faults within their ride Starliner has forced them to stay longer. They were part of Boeing’s Crew Flight Test (CFT), the company’s debut mission with astronauts. Starliner returned empty on September 7 as it was too dangerous for the crew.

Meanwhile, the duo will continue living and working aboard the station and is now scheduled to return no earlier than February 2025.

ALSO SEE: Sunita Williams Is Exposed To Radiation Levels Equivalent To Getting Hundreds Of X-Rays; What Are The Risks?

‘This is my happy place’: Sunita Williams

Despite the disheartening scene of Starliner leaving without them, Williams wan’t discouraged and has described space as her “happy place.”

“This is my happy place. I love being up here in space,” she said at the press call.

Sunita Williams with Barry Wilmore aboard the space station. Image: NASA

Both astronauts stressed that they are not disappointed with their extended stay and that issues were expected since the CFT was a test flight. Wilmore also said that they had to make some decisions on a timeline as the unforeseen situation emerged.

“The timeline came to the point where we had to decide, is Starliner coming back with us or without us? And we just did not have enough time to get to the end of that runway where we could say that we were going to come back with it. I think we’d have gotten there, but we just ran out of time,” Wilmore said.

Since Starliner is no longer an option, NASA has planned to rescue the duo on SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft. It is launching two astronauts on the Crew-9 mission on September 25 who will return with Williams and Wilmore six months later.

“We’re excited to fly in two different spacecraft. I mean, we’re testers; that’s what we do,” said Williams about riding Dragon on her way back home.

ALSO SEE: NASA Reveals Astronauts For Crew-9 Mission To Rescue Sunita Williams

(Image: NASA)





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