'You’re hit with a slam of shadow': Nasa’s air mission to capture rare eclipse data

Two aviators from Nasa will take off from Iceland in a research plane to fly along the path of a solar eclipse. Their objective is to photograph the sun at high altitude, extending the period of totality to nearly three minutes to observe phenomena like prominences and nanoflares. This mission aims to gather crucial data for understanding space weather, which impacts technology on Earth and space exploration.

• Nasa aviators will fly a research plane from Iceland to photograph the sun during a solar eclipse.
• The aircraft will fly at 50,000 feet along the eclipse’s path to extend totality to nearly 3 minutes.
• Four cameras in the plane’s nose cone will capture images of the sun in different light wavelengths, including plasma loops (prominences) and magnetic explosions (nanoflares).
• The mission aims to help scientists understand the sun’s corona temperature and space weather.
• High-altitude flight offers advantages over ground-based and space-based observations by avoiding clouds and atmospheric interference, and enabling larger data transfer.