These chips sound absolutely delicious. And of all the brands to jump on the solar eclipse train, this one is an undeniably obvious perfect pairing.
SunChips, the wavy, multigrain chips brand from the snack overlords of Frito-Lay, are putting on their solar eclipse glasses for April 8, and offering free bags of a special eclipse-themed flavor during totality, the span of time when the moon completely blocks the sun.
The limited edition Pineapple Habanero and Black Bean Spicy Gouda flavor chips can be ordered from the SunChips website, but only during the 4 minutes and 27 seconds that the moon's shadow is passing over the United States. After that, they'll be gone forever.
Related: Will the total solar eclipse on April 8 be the most watched ever?
"It's a celestial sort of cosmic collision of flavors," said private astronaut Kellie Gerardi, in an interview with Space.com. Gerardi flew to space last year as a researcher aboard Virgin Galactic's fifth commercial spaceflight. As the April 8 solar eclipse quickly approaches, SunChips has partnered with Gerardi to help spread the word about the release of its upcoming eclipse flavor.
Kellie Gerardi is a missions operations lead at Palantir Technologies, a payload specialist at the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences (IIAS) and an accomplished author and space/STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) communicator with a following in the hundreds of thousands.
"The pineapple habanero represents the sun, the brightness and the energy of the sun. And then you have the black bean spicy Gouda for the night and the moon and the cheese elements," Gerardi said.
On Monday, April 8, a total solar eclipse will sweep across the globe, passing across a large swath of the U.S., putting millions in the path of totality. Unlike last year's annular eclipse, this total solar eclipse will block out the sun entirely for more than four minutes in many locations. A similar total solar occurred on August 21, 2017, and crossed the U.S. from Oregon through South Carolina.
For the U.S., totality during the April 8 solar eclipse will pass northeastward from southern Texas through Maine. Spectators along that path will be treated with nearly four and a half minutes of darkness, as the moon passes in front of the sun and casts its shadow onto the face of the Earth. In all, the moon's shadow will take about four minutes and 27 seconds to pass across the U.S., and that is exactly when SunChips' limited Pineapple Habanero and Black Bean Spicy Gouda chips will be available.
If you want to get your hands on a bag of these festively-flavored chips, you'll only have those few minutes to do so.
"The chips themselves are going to be available once the eclipse hits US soil, so at 1:33pm CDT (1733 GMT)," Gerardi said. At that point, anyone wanting to try the out-of-this-world flavor can do so by going to www.sunchipssolareclipse.com during those four minutes and 27 seconds of totality.
Whether or not you happen to be in the path of totality, Gerardi suggests having the website queued up and ready to hit the order button so you don't miss the wonder of seeing the event itself. "You can also nominate someone else in your watch party to be on SunChips duty," she said. Gerardi, who was able to sample the new flavor ahead of April 8, added emphatically, "it's worth it."
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