As Monday’s eclipse moves away from Mexicoto the United States over Texas, then to Maine then Canada, two specialized NASA jets will be on its runway.
Four scientists aboard two of NASA’s three WB-57 research planes will cruise at 460 miles per hour into the stratosphere to collect data on the solar corona – the celestial body’s upper atmosphere, unusually visible as a halo during the ‘event.
The high-altitude WB-57s will chase the eclipse to an altitude of 50,000 feet above sea level, recording data on the sun’s impact on our ionosphere, the workings of the sun’s own atmosphere, and researching incredibly the long-theorized “vulcanoid” asteroids.
Asteroids are thought to orbit between the Sun and Mercury, drowned out in astronomical observations by the persistent blast of illuminating cosmic rays from the Sun.
As Monday’s eclipse moves with the sun and moon from Greenland, Canada, the United States and Mexico, two specialized NASA jets will be hot on its trail.
The high-altitude WB-57s will track the eclipse at an altitude of 50,000 feet above sea level, recording data on the sun’s impact on our ionosphere, on the functioning of its own atmosphere, but also in search of long-theorized “vulcanoid” asteroids.
An onboard camera that captures visible and infrared light at high resolution and speed serves as a key instrument in the flight’s hunt for “vulcanoid” asteroids, which will search for them while studying a ring of dust around the sun.
The project is led by physicist Amir Caspi, who studies high-energy solar physics at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, building on a similar jet flight during the August 21, 2017 solar eclipse.
“The shadow is moving about 1,500 mph at most and the planes are only moving about 460 mph,” Caspi told ABC affiliate WQAD today, “so the shadow will catch up to them pretty quickly.”
NASA planes will take off off the coast of Mexico and attempt to anticipate the eclipse as it crosses the Texas border.
“As long as you know all these things,” as Caspi said, “you can do the math and plan your attempt to be in a particular place.”
There are four cameras in total on the nose of the two WB-57 jets, each designed to capture specific colors or wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. Some of these EMC spectra, notably midwave infrared, cannot be measured from the ground because they can be absorbed by the atmosphere.
“This may well turn out to be the best observations ever made of high-frequency phenomena in the corona,” said astrophysicist Dan Seaton, a NASA project co-investigator and solar researcher at the University of Colorado at Boulder .
“Extending the observation time and going to very high altitudes could allow us to see some events or track waves that would be essentially invisible in just two minutes of observations from the ground.”
The trajectories of the two jets will allow them to witness the complete overlap, or “totality” of the eclipse, for 25% longer than the longest ground-based observation possible today, which will be a “totality” of 4 minutes and 27 seconds visible in Torreón. , Mexico.
The WB-57 team will be able to view the eclipse in its entirety for approximately 6 minutes and 22 seconds, and with a perfect view above all cloud cover.
NASA sensor equipment operator Mallory Yates, who will be aboard one of the WB-57 jets, will pilot the US space agency’s jet with a small keyboard and mouse while her co-pilot follows the eclipsed during these six minutes of total darkness.
“I’m going to have one of the best seats in the house,” Yates told BBC News. “So I’m excited to see the eclipse and hope to get some peeks while we do the mission.”
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