If you ’ve ever digest on the lead of your toe to hit something on a mellow shelf , you get it : Sometimes a little surplus superlative makes all the departure . Although in this case , we ’re talking knot , not in , as scientists aresending telescopesup on airplanes to monitor conditions on the Sun and Mercury during the upcoming full eclipse .
conditions permit , theGreat American Eclipse(as some are call it ) will be at least part visible from anywhere in the continental U.S.on August 21 . It will be the first time an eclipse has been so wide visible in the U.S. since 1918 and represent anincredible opportunitynot only for amateurish sky - watchers but also for scientists from coast to seashore .
But why settle forgawking from the groundwhen there ’s an even better view up in the sky ?
scientist at the Southwest Research Institute ( SwRI ) have announce plans to climb supervise equipment on NASA research airplane . The telescopes , which contain super - sensitive , high - speed , and infrared cameras , will rise 50,000 feet ( about 9.5 mile ) above the Earth ’s surface to snarf a very special peek at the expiration - on in our Sun and its near planetary pal .
Gaining elevation will not only lend the instruments closer to their targets but should also assist them invalidate the meteorological chaos down below .
" Being above the weather guarantees perfect observing condition , while being above more than 90 percent of Earth ’s ambience gives us much upright image quality than on the priming , " SwRI atomic number 27 - investigator Constantine Tsangsaidin a statement . " This peregrine program also allows us to furrow the occultation shadow , give us over seven minutes of totality between the two planing machine , compared to justtwo moment and 40 secondsfor a stationary observer on the ground . "
The dark of that shadow will spot out much of the Sun ’s sweep over day-by-day brightness level , have investigator a glimpse at seldom seen solar emission .
" By look for high - speed motion in the solar corona , we trust to understand what makes it so raging , " elderly investigator Amir Caspi said . " It ’s zillion of degrees Celsius — hundred of time hotter than the visible surface below . In addition , the Saint Elmo’s fire is one of the major sources of electromagnetic storms here at Earth . These phenomena damage satellites , cause power storage-battery grid memory loss , and disrupt communicating and Global Positioning System signals , so it ’s important to well understand them . "
The impermanent blackout will also create fine stipulation for peeping at Mercury ’s night side . Tsang says , " How the temperature changes across the open gives us information about the thermophysical property of Mercury ’s grunge , down to depths of about a few cm — something that has never been measured before . "
