{"id":1590,"date":"2024-04-04T09:14:29","date_gmt":"2024-04-04T09:14:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/04\/what-are-scientists-hoping-to-learn-from-the-total-solar-eclipse\/"},"modified":"2024-04-04T09:14:29","modified_gmt":"2024-04-04T09:14:29","slug":"what-are-scientists-hoping-to-learn-from-the-total-solar-eclipse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/04\/what-are-scientists-hoping-to-learn-from-the-total-solar-eclipse\/","title":{"rendered":"What are scientists hoping to learn from the total solar eclipse?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Scientists are gearing up for next week’s total solar eclipse – but what will they be hoping to learn as parts of the Earth temporarily fall dark?<\/p>\n

NASA<\/strong>‘s deputy chief Pam Melroy says it will give an “entirely different” opportunity to study the interaction between the Earth, moon and sun.<\/p>\n

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The US space<\/strong> agency and others will focus much of their work on observing the corona, the sun’s outer atmosphere.<\/p>\n

It can’t normally be seen because the sun is too bright, but during an eclipse<\/strong> the corona’s white halo can be seen bursting out from behind the shadow.<\/p>\n

The corona is hundreds of times hotter than the sun’s surface and reaches far out in space.<\/p>\n

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It’s the source of the solar wind – a flow of charged particles that can sometimes knock out power grids on Earth and affect communication networks.<\/p>\n

“In terms of the value of total eclipses, science still cannot explain how the corona is heated to such extreme temperatures,” says retired NASA astrophysicist and eclipse expert Fred Espenak.<\/p>\n

Scientists will be hoping to get more data on this enigma, as well as answers to other questions – such as how fast the particles are moving when they are flung out into space.<\/p>\n

NASA WB-57 high-altitude research planes will ascend as high as 50,000ft (9.5 miles) to conduct a series of experiments.<\/p>\n

One aircraft will use a camera that can photograph in both infrared and visible light to try to identify new details in the middle and lower corona.<\/p>\n

The space agency says it hopes the pictures will also help study a dust ring around the sun and also search for asteroids orbiting nearby.<\/p>\n

“Dust sounds boring,” said NASA’s eclipse programme manager Kelly Korreck.<\/p>\n

“But at the same time, dust is actually really interesting. Those are the leftover remnants from when the solar system was forming.”<\/p>\n

Another plane will use a spectrometer to study light from the corona, hopefully learning more about the temperature and chemical composition of the corona and the particles it emits.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of citizen scientists are also expected to get involved in Monday’s eclipse.<\/p>\n

They are set to observe things like the quietening of birds and other wildlife, the dip in temperature as the sun is blocked, and what effect there is on communications.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of weather balloons will also be released by US university students to monitor atmospheric changes.<\/p>\n

The eclipse will last about four and a half minutes, with more than 30 million people in the US, Mexico and Canada experiencing darkness in the path of totality.<\/p>\n

Huge numbers of people are expected to turn out for the spectacle in some areas.<\/p>\n

The Niagra region in Canada, near the famous waterfall, has declared a state of emergency amid predictions that a million people could show up.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on sky.com<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Scientists are gearing up for next week’s total solar eclipse – but what will they…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1591,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}