What do scientists hope to learn from the total solar eclipse in the US?

When a rare total solar eclipse sweeps across North America on April 8, scientists will be able to gather invaluable data on everything from the Sun’s atmosphere to strange animal behavior – and even the potential effects on humans.

It coincides with the Sun at the peak of its 11-year solar cycle, setting the stage for a breathtaking display: The corona will shine brilliantly from the Moon’s silhouette on its path of totality, a corridor that runs through the United States and Mexico. Extends from to Canada. ,

Total solar eclipses provide an “incredible scientific opportunity,” NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy said at a news conference about the astronomical phenomenon this week.

The US space agency is one of the institutions preparing for the eclipse, planning to launch so-called “sounding rockets” to study the effects on Earth’s upper atmosphere.

Here’s what researchers are hoping to learn from the upcoming eclipse:

Sun’s atmosphere

When the moon passes directly in front of the sun and blocks it, the elusive outer edge of the sun’s atmosphere, or corona, will appear “in a very special way,” Melroy said Tuesday.

“There are things happening with Corona that we don’t fully understand,” he said.

The heat within the corona increases with distance from the Sun’s surface – a phenomenon that scientists struggle to fully understand or explain.

Solar flares, a sudden burst of energy that releases radiation into space, occur in coronas such as solar prominences, giant plasma structures that protrude from the Sun’s surface.

During an eclipse, the lowest part of the corona – where a lot of the activity occurs – is more clearly visible, compared to using special equipment to block the central part of the sun, said Shannon Schmoll, who led the study. Provides a golden opportunity. Director of the Abrams Planetarium at Michigan State University.

Researchers are especially excited about it being near the peak of the Sun’s 11-year cycle.

“The chance that we see something amazing is very, very high,” Melroy said.

Earth’s atmosphere

The total eclipse will give scientists a chance to study changes in a part of Earth’s upper atmosphere called the ionosphere, which is important because it affects radio waves used for communications and navigation.

“Disturbances in this layer can cause problems with GPS and communications,” said Kelly Korrek, eclipse program manager at NASA Headquarters.

The ionosphere, where Earth’s atmosphere meets space, is influenced by the Sun, which electrically charges the particles there during the day.

Three NASA sounding rockets will be launched from Virginia before, during and just after the eclipse to measure these changes.

The large reduction in sunlight caused by the eclipse – more intense and localized than a simple sunset – should allow researchers to learn more about how light affects the ionosphere so they can better predict potentially problematic disruptions .

animal behavior

Startling animal behavior has been observed during the eclipse: giraffes have been seen galloping, while chickens and crickets may begin crowing and chirping.

In addition to drops in sunlight, temperature and wind – conditions to which animals are sensitive – may also be significantly reduced during an eclipse.

Andrew Farnsworth, an ornithology researcher at Cornell University in New York state, studies how eclipses affect birds by using weather monitoring radar to detect birds in flight.

During the last total solar eclipse visible in the United States in August 2017, scientists observed “a decline in the number of animals flying around,” Farnsworth told reporters.

The expert said the 2017 eclipse disrupted the daily activities of insects and birds, but did not trigger normal animal nocturnal behavior such as bird migration or the emergence of bats.

This time, birds may be more likely to migrate during the eclipse, he said, as it is in April.

“These types of patterns are important for understanding the ways animals make sense of their world,” Farnsworth said.

human wonder

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told reporters, “Eclipses have a special power. They make people feel a kind of awe of the beauty of our universe.”

Researchers studied this feeling of awe in 2017 using data from nearly three million users of Twitter, now called X.

According to Paul Piff, a psychology professor at the University of California, Irvine, people living in the so-called “way of wholeness” use the pronoun “we” (as opposed to “I”) and express concern about other people. ,

Piff said, “What we’re finding is that experiences that create awe… connect people to each other and connect us to each other, connect us to entities that are bigger than us.” Are.”

This year, they plan to study whether the experience has any impact on political divisions in society.

citizen scientist

About 40 citizen science projects are planned around the eclipse, ranging from using phone apps to register temperature and cloud cover to recording ambient noise during the event.

“We encourage you to help NASA by observing the sights and sounds around you,” Nelson said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)