Scientists Pursue the Total Solar Eclipse with NASA Jet Planes

5 min read Scientists Pursue the Total Solar Eclipse with NASA Jet Planes The April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse will produce stunning views across North America. While anyone along the eclipse path with a clear sky will see the spectacular event, the best view might be 50,000 feet in the air, aboard NASA’s WB-57 jet planes. That’s where a trio of NASA-funded teams are sending their scientific instruments to take measurements of the eclipse. Two teams will image the Sun’s outer atmosphere – the corona – and a third…

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NASA to Launch Sounding Rockets into Moon’s Shadow During Solar Eclipse

5 min read NASA to Launch Sounding Rockets into Moon’s Shadow During Solar Eclipse NASA will launch three sounding rockets during the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, to study how Earth’s upper atmosphere is affected when sunlight momentarily dims over a portion of the planet. The Atmospheric Perturbations around Eclipse Path (APEP) sounding rockets will launch from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia to study the disturbances in the ionosphere created when the Moon eclipses the Sun. The sounding rockets had been previously launched and successfully recovered from…

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