VIDEO: WHY DID SCIENTIST FLY JETS INTO THE SHADOWS OF THE SOLAR ECLIPSE...
Why is the corona of the sun so much hotter than the centre? This is why the scientists over at NASA flew high-altitude jets into the shadow of the eclipse to gather data on why the corona is hotter than the sun.
On 21 August 2017, one of the jets soared about 45,000 feet into the sky in pursuit of a natural phenomenon unlike any it’s faced before: a total solar eclipse. There was no second shot at this and they had been sure to be at the right place at the right time.
The scientists used a large device known as a spectrometer, to observe the sun’s corona, the sheath of plasma surrounding our star. The corona is visible from Earth only during a total solar eclipse, and scientists use the phenomenon to study its properties.
Because of several technological advances in the last few decades, this solar eclipse offered the scientists the chance to observe the corona in the infrared spectrum, which may reveal insight into the sun’s magnetic fields. The data could help answer a long-standing puzzle: Why does the corona burn at millions of degrees Fahrenheit, much hotter than the sun’s surface?
Watch the video down below to see more on the information at hand!