NASA has chosen five science experiments that it is going to fund to review the sun and Earth throughout the Great American Eclipse of 2024.
On April 8, 2024, a complete solar eclipse, during which the moon completely blocks out the disk of the sun, will darken skies across the US. The trail of totality, averaging 123 miles (198 kilometers) wide, runs from southwest Texas to northern Latest England and includes cities resembling San Antonio, Austin, Dallas-Fort Value, Little Rock, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Burlington.
The duration of totality will vary depending on viewers’ location, starting from nearly 4 and a half minutes in Texas to about three and 1 / 4 minutes in Maine. This total solar eclipse gives scientists a singular opportunity to review the interaction between the sun and Earth.
Related: The Great American Solar Eclipse of 2024 is just 1 12 months away!
“Seven years after the last American total solar eclipse, we’re thrilled to announce the number of five latest projects that can study the 2024 eclipse,” Peg Luce, acting director of the Heliophysics Division within the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in a press release from the agency. “We’re excited to see what these latest experiments will uncover about our sun and its impact on Earth.”
The five NASA-selected projects are led by researchers at different academic institutions and encourage citizen scientists to participate, too. The experiments will use a wide range of instruments, including cameras aboard high-altitude research planes, ham radios and spectrometers.
“Scientists have long used solar eclipses to make scientific discoveries,” Kelly Korreck, program scientist at NASA Headquarters, said within the statement. “They’ve helped us make the primary detection of helium, have given us evidence for the idea of general relativity, and allowed us to raised understand the sun’s influence on Earth’s upper atmosphere.”
One in all the projects chosen will use NASA’s WB-57 high-altitude research aircraft, which is able to “chase the eclipse” and capture images of the moon’s shadow from an altitude of fifty,000 feet (15,000 meters) above Earth’s surface. The plane is supplied with cameras to capture images in infrared and visual light at high resolution and high speed. It will allow scientists to review the sun’s outer atmosphere, called the corona, in addition to the dust ring across the sun where asteroids could also be found.
The cameras on NASA’s WB-57 may even be used on a project that goals to review the temperature, structure and chemical composition of the corona and enormous bursts of solar material often known as coronal mass ejections.
Using ham radios, researchers will study changes in Earth’s ionosphere throughout the total solar eclipse to raised understand the impact on radio wave transmissions. Generally, this region of the atmosphere is electrically charged, or “ionized,” by energy from the sun, which advantages radio communications. Due to this fact, this experiment, called the Solar Eclipse QSO Party, invites ham radio operators in numerous areas to check how the strength of their radio signals is affected when the moon blocks out the sun’s powerful rays.
One other experiment using data from the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) may even take a detailed take a look at the ionosphere and the effect solar radiation has on the upper layers of Earth’s atmosphere throughout the eclipse. Three SuperDARN radars, which generally monitor space weather conditions, are positioned in areas that fall inside the eclipse’s shadow.
Lastly, NASA will fund a project designed to review changes in solar ”energetic regions” — the magnetically complex regions that form over sunspots. Using the Goldstone Apple Valley Radio Telescope (GAVRT) in California, researchers will study light signals coming from different energetic regions because the moon passes between the sun and Earth.
You’ll be able to read more about each of the five NASA-funded solar eclipse projects online.
Editor’s Note: Never take a look at the sun with binoculars, a telescope or your unaided eye without special protection. Astrophotographers and astronomers use special filters to securely observe the sun during solar eclipses or other sun phenomena. Here’s our guide on tips on how to observe the sun safely.