Revd Katie Smith, Mission Area Lead for Greater Manchester Plus and Deputy Chair, shares her reflections ahead of the opportunity to see a partial solar eclipse in the UK on 12 August.
In September 1996 I joined the “Solar Physics Research Group” at the University of St Andrews. Despite the name, the group is part of the maths department and I spent the next three years developing a mathematical model of the interaction between the solar wind and the earth’s magnetic field. 
The solar wind is a stream of charged particles that flow outwards from the sun at up to 1 million miles per hour, dragging the magnetic field of the sun as it travels.
Life on earth is only possible because our magnetic field deflects most of the solar wind, otherwise it would destroy our atmosphere. Some solar particles do get through and are how the aurora are formed. These aurora are most visible closer to the poles, but recently we have seen them in our region.
The solar wind starts in the solar corona – the outer layer of the sun’s atmosphere that is super-hot, but much less dense than the lower layers. Usually we cannot see the corona as it is outshone by the much brighter surface.
However, during a total solar eclipse there are a few minutes when the moon totally obscures the surface of the sun and we get a glimpse of the corona. My family and I went to South Carolina in August 2017 to see a total eclipse and those few minutes were magical. The picture that we took on that day shows the white glow of the corona and the shapes within the glow give clues about the magnetic fields on the sun.
That amazing glimpse of something that is usually unseen reflects something of the life of faith – we can be so focused on what is seen that we fail to notice that God is at work in marvellous ways around us.
Solar eclipses only happen as they do because the moon is just the right distance between the sun and the earth, and just the right size that it is able to block all the light coming through when its orbit lines up just right.
Science can often be portrayed as being in opposition to faith. Some people think that if we can explain the laws that govern our universe then we are somehow explaining away the need for God. I have never found this to be true. The more I have learned, the more amazing it is that we exist on a planet that is just right in countless ways for life to flourish. And the more we learn, the more we realise we don’t know.
In the book of Job, when suffering comes, Job’s friends try to rationalise it and claim to understand God’s purposes. In Job 38, God speaks from a storm asking questions that reflect the magnificence of God’s creativity and sovereignty. This chapter has always spoken to me – reminding me not to mistake the questions that science is asking with the deeper questions of faith – not how does it work, but who makes it work. The wonder that science reveals leads me back to God and to deeper wonder and awe.
On August 12th, in the UK, we will have the chance to see a partial solar eclipse. From where I am in Stockport, the moon will block about 91% of the sun’s face. We won’t get to see the corona (look out for pictures from places that saw totality) but we are invited to stop, to look and to wonder again at the amazing creation God has placed us in.
Don’t forget not to look directly at the sun – for tips on how to safely see what is going on, click on this link.
“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone—
while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels shouted for joy?”
Job 38:4-7 NIV