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The Sun Myung Moon ’s tail will give-up the ghost over a immense stretch of North America during thetotal solar eclipse on April 8 , andNASAis send off jet to chase it .
Two of NASA ’s WB-57 K planes will conform to the eclipse as it traces itspath of totalityacross the U.S. , training special legal instrument on the sheathe Dominicus ’s outer atmosphere , or corona .
A solar eclipse over the Pacific Ocean at sunset, with the “diamond ring” feature visible.
By studying the sun ’s out standard atmosphere and its electrically - charged ionosphere , three teams of NASA scientists hope to better understand the corposant ’s structure and temperature ; how the Dominicus touch on our major planet ’s ionosphere ; and undercover agent anystray asteroids usually hidden in the sun ’s glare .
" The eclipse basically serves as a see to it experiment,“Bharat Kunduri , lead researcher of the ionosphere measurement and a inquiry supporter professor at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg , Virginia , said in a statement .
Climbing as high as 50,000 feet ( 15,000 meter ) above the flat coat , WB-57s can soar above cloud cover and atmospheric particles to capture shrill images in seeable and infrared light .
One of NASA’s three WB-57 jets.
link : April 8 total solar occultation : Everything you need to have a go at it
The jets will time their takeoffs and flight exactly with the occultation ’s exit ; peck up to speeds of 460 mph ( 740 km / h ) to stretch out the detect total time by an surplus 25 % — make it roughly 6 minutes and 22 second . ( For comparison , the longest totality visible on the land will be 4 minutes , 27 endorsement in Torreón , Mexico ) .
As they race alongside the eclipse ’s eastward way of life , spectrometers mounted on the planes will value the temperature and the element found within the corona and its eruptions , calledcoronal mass expulsion . Meanwhile , camera will value the igniter of the halfway and lower corona into mid - infrared wavelength , snapping photos at such eminent resolutions that they could let on a junk annulus nigh to the sun believe to be home to asteroid .
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" By widen the duration of totality , we ’re increase the continuance of how much data we can acquire,“Shadia Habbal , a researcher at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy and the lead scientist of one of the experiments , said in the affirmation . " This twinkle is our good probe short of sticking a thermometer in the corona . "
Finally , a third experimentation will canvas the effect of the moon ’s shadow on Earth ’s ionosphere , enable scientists to fare back with a exact measurement on how charged it is .
" It give us an opportunity to understand how changes in solar radiotherapy can bear on the ionosphere , which can in turn impact some of these technology like microwave radar and GPS that we rely on in our day-after-day lives , " Kunduri tell .
