A rare solar eclipse wows North America

To get inside the inner workings of the eclipse, the US space agency NASA conducted several experiments and fired three sounding rockets from its Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia to study it more closely.

In ancient civilizations, mysterious eclipses were often feared.

One of the first eclipses recorded was in 753 BC, in Assyria (near modern-day Iraq and parts of Iran and Syria).

Chinese diviners' queries on oracle bones from 1300 to 1100 BC also mention eclipses, according to Reuters.

Ancient Chinese astronomers recorded solar eclipses from 720-480 BC, in the state of Lu, presently China's Shandong province. In ancient times, they saw it as a heavenly sign that forecasted the emperor's future.

By the first millennium AD, Chinese imperial astronomers became adept at predicting eclipses within just 15 minutes.