Eclipse provides NASA scientists opportunity to study burning sky
During the solar eclipse, our Moon will shield all of the light emitted directly by our local star. In the process, it will make the lower atmosphere of the sun visible to the naked eye. This will allow scientists to study the sun in greater detail.
AUSTIN (KXAN) -- "The Earth actually lives in the atmosphere of the sun," said Eric Christian, Associate Lab Chief in NASA's Heliospheric Laboratory, during a Zoom call on March 8. One month out from the total solar eclipse that would soon cross the United States, Christian was excited about the chance to study the center of our solar system: the Sun.
During the solar eclipse, our Moon will shield all the light emitted directly by our local star. In the process, it will make the lower atmosphere of the sun visible to the naked eye.
"You can see the dim atmosphere that you normally can't see when the sun's because the sun's just too bright," Christian said.
Understanding the sun's atmosphere is just as important as understanding our own. The sun produces "space weather" that disrupts our communications and causes other issues on Earth.
"The sun's atmosphere is really funny because it's hot," but the surface of the sun is cool. It only heats up to about 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The atmosphere around the sun is several million degrees and scientists don't know why.
"Close to the Sun is where that atmosphere is being heated and accelerated. And that's where the action is happening. So that's where we want to study," Christian said.
Studying the sun with a solar eclipse
The eclipse gives scientists a view of this atmosphere. With the surface blocked by the moon, the sun's atmosphere becomes more visible. Electrons arch across the surface, forming webs. Storms burst to life, exploding from sunspots on the surface.
Normally, NASA uses artificial eclipses to study these events. Black discs placed on telescopes blot out the light. Unfortunately, these discs have to be larger than the sun to reduce the risk of damaging the telescope. This makes seeing the surface challenging.
The moon is the exact right distance and size to blot out just the surface of the sun. It is also the only moon in the solar system that does this. Earth is, in fact, the only planet that has total solar eclipses.
"With a satellite, you can't get more than a couple of feet away. With the moon being 240,000 miles away. That's a perfect way to look really, really close to the sun," Christian said.
Other science during the eclipse
Solar observations are just one of the events happening. Citizen Science, aka Participatory Science, puts science in the hands of people across the nation.
"Students who are going to be launching balloons into the upper atmosphere to study the temperature and what happened to the atmosphere as the shadow moves across," said Christian.
These experiments will give us not just a better understanding of the sun's atmosphere but our own.