by When a rare total solar eclipse sweeps across North America on Monday, scientists will be able to gather valuable data on everything from the Sun’s atmosphere to strange animal behaviors — and even possible effects on humans.
It joins the Sun near the peak of its 11-year solar cycle, setting the stage for a spectacular display: The corona will shine brightly from the moon’s silhouette along the path of totality, a path that stretches from Mexico to Canada through the States United. .
Total solar eclipses offer “incredible scientific opportunities,” NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy said at a press conference this week about the celestial event.
The US space agency is one of the institutions ready for the eclipse, and plans to send a so-called “sound rocket” to study the effects on Earth’s upper atmosphere.
Here’s a look at what researchers hope to learn from the upcoming eclipse:
– The sun’s atmosphere –
When the Moon passes directly in front of and blocks the Sun, the outermost edge of the Sun’s atmosphere, or corona, will appear “in a very special way,” Melroy said.
“There are things happening with the crown that we don’t fully understand,” she said.
The heat within the corona increases with distance from the Sun’s surface – a counter-intuitive phenomenon that scientists struggle to fully understand or explain.
Solar flares, sudden bursts of energy that release radiation into space, occur in the corona as do solar flares, huge formations of plasma that bulge out from the Sun’s surface.
During an eclipse, most of the lower part of the corona — where much of this activity takes place — is seen more clearly than when specialized tools are used to block the central part of the Sun, providing a golden opportunity studies, said Shannon Schmoll. , director of the Abrams Planetarium at Michigan State University.
Researchers are thrilled that the Sun is nearing the peak of its 11-year cycle.
“The chances of us seeing something amazing are very high,” Melroy said.
– Earth’s atmosphere –
The total eclipse will also allow scientists to study changes in a part of Earth’s upper atmosphere called the ionosphere, which is important because it affects radio waves used for communication and navigation .
“Disturbances in this layer can cause problems with GPS and communications,” said Kelly Korreck, eclipse program manager at NASA headquarters.
The Sun affects the ionosphere, which is where the Earth’s atmosphere meets space, which electrically charges the particles there during the day.
Three NASA sounding rockets will be launched before, during and immediately after the eclipse from Virginia to measure these changes.
The dramatic decline in sunlight triggered by the eclipse — more rapid and localized than a simple sunset — should allow researchers to learn more about how light affects the ionosphere so that with them to better predict potential problems.
– Animal behavior –
Strange animal behavior has been observed during an eclipse: Giraffes have been seen crying, and roosters and crickets can start calling and crying.
Beyond the drop in sunlight, temperatures and wind — conditions to which animals are sensitive — can also drop significantly during an eclipse.
Andrew Farnsworth, an ornithology researcher at Cornell University in New York state, studies how eclipses affect birds, using weather surveillance radar to detect birds in flight.
During the last total solar eclipse visible from the United States in August 2017, scientists noticed “a decrease in the number of animals flying around,” Farnsworth told reporters.
The 2017 eclipse affected the daily activities of insects and birds, but did not trigger normal nocturnal animal behaviors such as birds migrating or bats emerging, the expert said.
This time around, birds may be more suitable to migrate during the eclipse, since it is in April, he said.
“These kinds of patterns — they’re important to understanding the ways animals make sense of their lives,” Farnsworth said.
– Human wonder –
“Eclipses have a special power. They move people to feel a kind of reverence for the beauty of our universe,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told reporters.
Researchers studied this feeling in 2017, using data from almost three million Twitter users, now known as X.
Those called “the path of totality,” under which the Moon will completely block out the Sun, tend to use the pronoun “we” (rather than “I”) and express concern about others, according to Paul Piff. , a professor of psychology at the University of California, Irvine.
“What we’re finding is that experiences that surprise us… seem to condition people and connect us to each other, to connect us to entities that are bigger than ourselves,” said Piff.
This year, he plans to study whether the experience has any effect on political divisions in society.
– Citizen scientists –
About 40 citizen science projects are planned around the eclipse, from using a phone app to record temperature and cloud cover to recording ambient noise during the event.
“We encourage you to help NASA observe the sights and sounds around you,” said Nelson.
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