SunChips will sell exclusive total solar eclipse flavors only during totality on April 8
You'll have exactly 4 minutes and 27 seconds to get your hands on these solar eclipse-themed SunChips.
![spacey gases of purple pink red and orange collide in the background. A similarly colored back of SunChips stands in the middle. some chips float nearby. the bag is flanked on either side by transparent rectangular columns.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/mc2oHZ92crFmssh35m4r2W-320-80.jpg)
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.
![a man in a black shirt sitting at a table or desk with hands overlapped.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/YQ3cFBVhkCZsQWdCKP2RqV.jpg)
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.
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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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![Josh Dinner](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/euNBAbkdoaMezxhuUTcNtH.jpeg)
Josh Dinner is Space.com's Content Manager. He is a writer and photographer with a passion for science and space exploration, and has been working the space beat since 2016. Josh has covered the evolution of NASA's commercial spaceflight partnerships, from early Dragon and Cygnus cargo missions to the ongoing development and launches of crewed missions from the Space Coast, as well as NASA science missions and more. He also enjoys building 1:144 scale models of rockets and human-flown spacecraft. Find some of Josh's launch photography on Instagram and his website, and follow him on Twitter, where he mostly posts in haiku.
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jeffmeden Help me out here, because this is pretty clearly not correct:Reply
"only during the 4 minutes and 27 seconds that the moon's shadow is passing over the United States"
"In all, the moon's shadow will take about four minutes and 27 seconds to pass across the U.S."
The moon's shadow will be covering any one spot in the USA for a maximum of 4m27s... but the shadow passing over the entire USA will take about 67 minutes in total.
I really dont want to miss out on my chance for limited edition sun chips so can someone please help explain what the process actually is? -
bgreenstone Umm... who wrote this article, and how did they get hired? The eclipse is not 4 1/2 minutes. Totality in any given location is about 4 1/2 minutes, but the eclipse is almost 3 hours long from start to finish in any given centerline location, and the total event across it's entire path is even longer.Reply