NASA researchers launched three rockets carrying scientific instruments during last weekend’s solar eclipse.
The Moon during a solar eclipse. (Photo: NASA)
While millions of people across North, Central, and South America were looking up at the sky to observe the solar eclipse on October 14th, NASA researchers carried out an unprecedented action that hadn’t been done in a decade: launching rockets directly during the eclipse.
According to NASA, these rockets were for scientific purposes and were launched in New Mexico to observe changes in the Earth’s upper atmosphere during the daytime eclipse. When the eclipse reached its peak, we witnessed the moon obscuring up to 90% of the sunlight. As we know, just before a solar eclipse, daytime light gradually dims, resulting in some peculiar effects on our planet, including rapid temperature changes, shifts in wind patterns, and alterations in the behavior of various animal species.
One of the least-known aspects is how the eclipse affects the upper atmospheric ionization (around 50-80 km above Earth’s surface). During the eclipse, solar ultraviolet radiation ionizes and separates electrons from atoms, creating a large sea of charged particles throughout the day. At sunset, many of these electrons recombine to form neutral atoms, until the sun’s rays return and ionize them again.
During the total solar eclipse in North America in 2017, scientists observed an accelerated version of this process when the moon completely blocked the sunlight for a few moments, causing a disturbance in the ionospheric layer as temperatures and ion density rapidly decreased and then rebounded shortly after the eclipse’s peak.
Combined data from above and on the ground will provide APEP researchers with an unprecedented insight into atmospheric changes during the eclipse. The team will recover and reuse these rockets to study the eclipse passing over North America on April 8, 2024.
The team will not have another opportunity to launch rockets into the moon’s shadow until 2044 when the next total eclipse occurs.
Source: Live Science