NASA Johnson Pilots Chase Moon’s Shadow for Eclipse Science

NASA News reports that a NASA WB-57F research plane lifted off from Ellington Field in Houston and flew to Iceland to ride the Moon’s shadow during the August twelfth total solar eclipse. At about fifty thousand feet the aircraft stayed above clouds and water vapor, letting its cameras capture infrared views of the Sun’s hot corona while the Moon blocked the bright disk. The mission’s data will give scientists another chance to study how energy moves through the corona and improve understanding of space weather around Earth.

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