SOLAR ECLİPSE 2017

On August 21, 2017, All Of North America Was Treated To An Eclipse Of The Sun.

Paylas:

SOLAR ECLİPSE 2017

On August 21, 2017,

All Of North America Was Treated To An Eclipse Of The Sun.

Viewers around the world were provided a wealth of images captured before, during, and after the eclipse by 11 spacecraft, at least three NASA aircraft, more than 50 high-altitude balloons, and the astronauts aboard the International Space Station – each offering a unique vantage point for the celestial event.

Eclipse Photos From NASA

NASA Missions and People Featured on NASA's Solar Eclipse Broadcast:

International Space Station, with astronauts Peggy Whitson, Randy Bresnik, Paolo Nespoli and Jack Fischer
Armstrong Flight Research Center's Gulfstream III aircraft, with Acting Administrator Lightfoot, Deputy Administrator Lesa Roe and NASA Science Mission Directorate Associate Administrator Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen
NASA's WB-57F Jets
NOAA GOES Satellite Weather Imagery and Data
Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)
Parker Solar Probe
Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
Kepler and SOFIA

Resources
NASA's Eclipse 2017 website
Safety Tips From NASA For Eclipse Viewing
Video: How to Safely Watch a Solar Eclipse
Watch NASA's Eclipse 2017 Preview Videos
Five Tips From NASA For Photographing the Total Solar Eclipse

Julyg. 25, 2017

Chasing the Total Solar Eclipse from NASA’s WB-57F Jets

For most viewers, the Aug. 21, 2017, total solar eclipse will last less than two and half minutes.

But for one team of NASA-funded scientists, the eclipse will last over seven minutes. Their secret.?

Following the shadow of the Moon in two retrofitted WB-57F jet planes.

Amir Caspi of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and his team will use two of NASA’s WB-57F research jets to chase the darkness across America on Aug. 21. Taking observations from twin telescopes mounted on the noses of the planes, Caspi will capture the clearest images of the Sun’s outer atmosphere — the corona — to date and the first-ever thermal images of Mercury, revealing how temperature varies across the planet’s surface.

“These could well turn out to be the best ever observations of high frequency phenomena in the corona,” says Dan Seaton, co-investigator of the project and researcher at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado. “Extending the observing time and going to very high altitude might allow us to see a few events or track waves that would be essentially invisible in just two minutes of observations from the ground.”

For most viewers, the Aug. 21, 2017, total solar eclipse will last less than two and half minutes. But for one team of NASA-funded scientists, the eclipse will last over seven minutes. Their secret? Following the shadow of the Moon in two retrofitted WB-57F jet planes. Amir Caspi of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and his team will use two of NASA's WB-57F research jets to chase the darkness across America on Aug. 21. Taking observations from twin telescopes mounted on the noses of the planes, Caspi will capture the clearest images of the Sun's outer atmosphere -- the corona -- to date and the first-ever thermal images of Mercury, revealing how temperature varies across the planet's surface.

Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Download this video in HD formats from NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio

The total solar eclipse provides a rare opportunity for scientists to study the Sun, particularly its atmosphere. As the Moon completely covers the Sun and perfectly blocks its light during an eclipse, the typically faint corona is easily seen against the dark sky. NASA is funding 11 science projects across America for scientists to take advantage of the unique astronomical event to learn more about the Sun and its effects on Earth’s upper atmosphere.

The corona is heated to millions of degrees, yet the lower atmospheric layers like the photosphere — the visible surface of the Sun — are only heated to a few thousand degrees. Scientists aren’t sure how this inversion happens. One theory proposes that magnetic waves called Alfvén waves steadily convey energy into the Sun’s outer atmosphere, where it is then dissipated as heat. Alternatively, micro explosions, termed nanoflares — too small and frequent to detect individually, but with a large collective effect — might release heat into the corona.

One of the WB-57F jets is readied for a test run at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The instruments are mounted under the silver casing on the nose of the plane.

Credits: NASA’s Johnson Space Center/Norah Moran

Due to technological limitations, no one has yet directly seen nanoflares, but the high-resolution and high-speed images to be taken from the WB-57F jets might reveal their effects on the corona. The high-definition pictures, captured 30 times per second, will be analyzed for wave motion in the corona to see if waves move towards or away from the surface of the Sun, and with what strengths and sizes.

“We see the evidence of nanoflare heating, but we don’t know where they occur,” Caspi said. “If they occur higher up in the corona, we might expect to see waves moving downwards, as the little explosions occur and collectively reconfigure the magnetic fields.”

In this way, nanoflares may also be the missing link responsible for untangling the chaotic mess of magnetic field lines on the surface of the Sun, explaining why the corona has neat loops and smooth fans of magnetic fields. The direction and nature of the waves observed will also help distinguish between competing models of coronal heating.

The two planes, launching from Ellington Field near NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston will observe the total eclipse for about three and a half minutes each as they fly over Missouri, Illinois and Tennessee. By flying high in the stratosphere, observations taken with onboard telescopes will avoid looking through the majority of Earth’s atmosphere, greatly improving image quality. At the planes’ cruising altitude of 50,000 feet, the sky is 20-30 times darker than as seen from the ground, and there is much less atmospheric turbulence, allowing fine structures and motions in the Sun’s corona to be visible.

Images of the Sun will primarily be captured at visible light wavelengths, specifically the green light given off by highly ionized iron, superheated by the corona. This light is best for showing the fine structures in the Sun’s outer atmosphere. These images are complementary to space-based telescopes, like NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which takes images primarily in ultraviolet light and does not have the capacity for the high-speed imagery that can be captured aboard the WB-57F.

Observations of Mercury will also be taken a half-hour before and after totality, when the sky is still relatively dark. These images, taken in the infrared, will be the first attempt to map the variation of temperature across the surface of the planet.

Mercury rotates much slower than Earth — one Mercurial day is approximately 59 Earth days — so the night side cools to a few hundred degrees below zero while the dayside bakes at a toasty 800 F. The images will show how quickly the surface cools, allowing scientists to know what the soil is made of and how dense it is. These results will give scientists insight into how Mercury and other rocky planets may have formed.

The images of the corona will also allow the team to search for a hypothesized family of asteroids called vulcanoids. Its thought these objects orbit between the Sun and Mercury, and are leftover from the formation of the solar system. If discovered, vulcanoids could change what scientists understand about planet formation.

Related Links

By Mara Johnson-Groh
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Last Updated: Aug. 4, 2017

Editor: Rob Garner

Tags: Eclipses and Transits, Goddard Space Flight Center, Mercury (Planet), SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory), Solar Eclipse, Solar System

(Photo illustration) During the upcoming total solar eclipse, a team of NASA-funded scientists will observe the solar corona using stabilized telescopes aboard two of NASA’s WB-57F research aircraft. This vantage point provides distinct advantages over ground-based observations, as illustrated by this composite photo of the aircraft and the 2015 total solar eclipse at the Faroe Islands.

Credits: NASA/Faroe Islands/SwRI

NASA's EPIC View of 2017 Eclipse Across America

Aug. 22, 2017

NASA Earth Observatory: Eclipse Shadow Darkens the United States

Aug. 22, 2017

SDO Views 2017 Solar

Aug. 21, 2017

Eclipse

SDO Views 2017 Solar Eclipse

Aug. 21, 2017

Aug. 17, 2017

Greatest Eclipse and Greatest Duration:

What’s the Difference.?

During the total solar eclipse on Aug. 21, 2017, the Moon’s shadow will cross the United States from Oregon to South Carolina in just an hour and a half. But the shadow won’t travel across the country at the same speed. Instead, its speed will vary — and depending on location, so too will the duration of totality, the fleeting minutes when the Moon completely covers the Sun.

Two points along the shadow’s path are of particular interest to eclipse viewers seeking the longest-lasting totality: the point of greatest eclipse and the point of greatest duration. But neither is necessarily greater than the other; with clear skies, any view of the corona — the sun’s pearly-white, ethereal atmosphere — should be spectacular. So, what is the difference between the two.?

The point of greatest eclipse is where the axis of the Moon’s shadow passes closest to the center of the Earth. Since this is a strictly geometric concept, scientists use this point to compare different eclipses with each other. For example, each eclipse on NASA’s list of past and future eclipses is described by the date and time at its point of greatest eclipse. The point of greatest eclipse for the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse will see 2 minutes, 40.1 seconds of totality. The closest towns to this location are Cerulean and Hopkinsville, Kentucky, which each will experience 2 minutes, 40 seconds of totality.

The point of greatest eclipse for the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse will see 2 minutes, 40.1 seconds of totality.

Credits: Map data by Google; eclipse calculations by NASA

On the other hand, the point of greatest duration is where totality lasts the longest along the very center of the path of totality. The greatest duration during the Aug. 21 eclipse is 2 minutes, 40.2 seconds near Makanda, Illinois. Carbondale, Illinois, is the closest large town and will experience 2 minutes, 37 seconds of totality.

The greatest duration during the Aug. 21 eclipse is 2 minutes, 40.2 seconds.

Credits: Map data by Google; eclipse calculations by NASA

Even though the Moon’s shadow travels at the same speed in space, the shadow’s speed — and totality — varies in different places based on geometry between Earth and the Moon.

Credits: NASA Goddard’s Scientific Visualization Studio

Typically, the duration of totality at greatest duration and greatest eclipse differs by just a few tenths of a second. The geographic location may differ by 6 to 60 miles.

Even though the Moon’s shadow travels at the same speed in space, the shadow’s speed — and totality — varies in different places based on geometry between Earth and the Moon. The Moon casts its shadow not on a flat surface, but a sphere — Earth. Toward either end of the path of totality, Earth curves away from the Moon, so the shadow hits the surface at an angle and elongates, covering a longer distance over a given time period. Near the middle of the path of totality, when the shadow hits Earth head-on, the shadow covers less ground in the same amount of time, so totality lasts the longest.

For more information on the upcoming total solar eclipse, visit: https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov

By Lina Tran
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Last Updated: Aug. 22, 2017

Editor: Rob Garner

Aug. 14, 2017

Studying the Sun’s Atmosphere with the Total Solar Eclipse of 2017

A total solar eclipse happens somewhere on Earth about once every 18 months. But because Earth’s surface is mostly ocean, most eclipses are visible over land for only a short time, if at all. The total solar eclipse of Aug. 21, 2017, is different – its path stretches over land for nearly 90 minutes, giving scientists an unprecedented opportunity to make scientific measurements from the ground.

When the Moon moves in front of the Sun on Aug. 21, it will completely obscure the Sun’s bright face. This happens because of a celestial coincidence – though the Sun is about 400 times wider than the Moon, the Moon on Aug. 21 will be about 400 times closer to us, making their apparent size in the sky almost equal. In fact, the Moon will appear slightly larger than the Sun to us, allowing it to totally obscure the Sun for more than two and a half minutes in some locations. If they had the exact same apparent size, the total eclipse would only last for an instant.

A total solar eclipse lets NASA researchers try out technology that could one day aid in the development of future missions, however, they must flawlessly complete the experiment in a few short minutes, two to be exact.

Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Genna Duberstein

To download the video

The eclipse will reveal the Sun’s outer atmosphere, called the corona, which is otherwise too dim to see next to the bright Sun. Though we study the corona from space with instruments called coronagraphs – which create artificial eclipses by using a metal disk to block out the Sun’s face – there are still some lower regions of the Sun’s atmosphere that are only visible during total solar eclipses. Because of a property of light called diffraction, the disk of a coronagraph must block out both the Sun’s surface and a large part of the corona in order to get crisp pictures. But because the Moon is so far away from Earth – about 230,000 miles away during the eclipse – diffraction isn’t an issue, and scientists are able to measure the lower corona in fine detail.

NASA is taking advantage of the Aug. 21, 2017, eclipse by funding 11 ground-based science investigations across the United States. Six of these focus on the Sun’s corona.

The Source Of Space Weather

Our Sun is an active star that constantly releases a flow of charged particles and magnetic fields known as the solar wind. This solar wind, along with discrete burps of solar material known as coronal mass ejections, can influence Earth’s magnetic field, send particles raining down into our atmosphere, and – when intense – impact satellites. Though we’re able to track these solar eruptions when they leave the Sun, the key to predicting when they’ll happen could lie in studying their origins in the magnetic energy stored in the lower corona.

A team led by Philip Judge of the High Altitude Observatory in Boulder, Colorado, will use new instruments to study the magnetic field structure of the corona by imaging this atmospheric layer during the eclipse. The instruments will image the corona to see fingerprints left by the magnetic field in visible and near-infrared wavelengths from a mountaintop near Casper, Wyoming. One instrument, POLARCAM, uses new technology based on the eyes of the mantis shrimp to obtain novel polarization measurements, and will serve as a proof-of-concept for use in future space missions. The research will enhance our understanding of how the Sun generates space weather.

“We want to compare between the infrared data we’re capturing and the ultraviolet data recorded by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory and JAXA/NASA’s Hinode satellite,” said Judge. “This work will confirm or refute our understanding of how light across the entire spectrum forms in the corona, perhaps helping to resolve some nagging disagreements.”

The results from the camera will complement data from an airborne study imaging the corona in the infrared, as well as another ground-based infrared study led by Paul Bryans at the High Altitude Observatory. Bryans and his team will sit inside a trailer atop Casper Mountain in Wyoming, and point a specialized instrument at the eclipse. The instrument is a spectrometer, which collects light from the Sun and separates each wavelength of light, measuring their intensity. This particular spectrometer, called the NCAR Airborne Interferometer, will, for the first time, survey infrared light emitted by the solar corona.

“These studies are complementary. We will have the spectral information, which reveals the component wavelengths of light,” said Bryans. “And Philip Judge’s team will have the spatial resolution to tell where certain features are coming from.”

This novel data will help scientists characterize the corona’s complex magnetic field — crucial information for understanding and eventually helping to forecast space weather events. The scientists will augment their study by analyzing their results alongside corresponding space-based observations from other instruments aboard NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory and the joint NASA/JAXA Hinode.

In Madras, Oregon, a team of NASA scientists led by Nat Gopalswamy at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, will point a new, specialized polarization camera at the Sun’s faint outer atmosphere, the corona, taking several-second exposures at four selected wavelengths in just over two minutes. Their images will capture data on the temperature and speed of solar material in the corona. Currently these measurements can only be obtained from Earth-based observations during a total solar eclipse.

To study the corona at times and locations outside a total eclipse, scientists use coronagraphs, which mimic eclipses by using solid disks to block the Sun’s face much the way the Moon’s shadow does. Typical coronagraphs use a polarizer filter in a mechanism that turns through three angles, one after the other, for each wavelength filter. The new camera is designed to eliminate this clunky, time-consuming process, by incorporating thousands of tiny polarization filters to read light polarized in different directions simultaneously. Testing this instrument is a crucial step toward improving coronagraphs and ultimately, our understanding of the corona — the very root of the solar radiation that fills up Earth’s space environment.

NASA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO, constantly observes the outer regions of the Sun’s corona. During the Aug. 21, 2017, eclipse, scientists will observe the lower regions of the sun’s corona to better understand the source of solar explosions called coronal mass ejections, as well as the unexpectedly high temperatures in the corona.

Credits: ESA/NASA/SOHO

Unexplained Coronal Heating

The answer to another mystery also lies in the lower corona: It is thought to hold the secrets to a longstanding question of how the solar atmosphere reaches such unexpectedly high temperatures. The Sun’s corona is much hotter than its surface, which is counterintuitive, as the Sun’s energy is generated by nuclear fusion at its core. Usually temperatures go down consistently as you move away from that heat source, the same way that it gets cooler as you move away from a fire – but not so in the case of the Sun’s atmosphere. Scientists suspect that detailed measurements of the way particles move in the lower corona could help them uncover the mechanism that produces this enormous heating.

Padma Yanamandra-Fisher of the Space Science Institute will lead an experiment to take images of the lower corona in polarized light. Polarized light is when all the light waves are oriented the same way, and it is produced when ordinary, unpolarized light passes through a medium – in this case, the electrons of the inner solar corona.

“By measuring the polarized brightness of the inner solar corona and using numerical modeling, we can extract the number of electrons along the line of sight,” said Yanamandra-Fisher. “Essentially, we’re mapping the distribution of free electrons in the inner solar corona.”

Mapping the inner corona in polarized light to reveal the density of elections is a critical factor in modeling coronal waves, one possible source of coronal heating. Along with unpolarized light images collected by the NASA-funded citizen science project called Citizen CATE, which will gather eclipse imagery from across the country, these polarized light measurements could help scientists address the question of the solar corona’s unusually high temperatures.

Shadia Habbal of the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy in Honolulu will lead a team of scientists to image the Sun during the total solar eclipse. The eclipse’s long path over land allows the team to image the Sun from five sites across four different states, about 600 miles apart, allowing them to track short-term changes in the corona and increasing the odds of good weather.

They will use spectrometers, which analyze the light emitted from different ionized elements in the corona. The scientists will also use unique filters to selectively image the corona in certain colors, which allows them to directly probe into the physics of the Sun’s outer atmosphere.

With this data, they can explore the composition and temperature of the corona, and measure the speed of particles flowing out from the Sun. Different colors correspond to different elements — nickel, iron and argon — that have lost electrons, or been ionized, in the corona’s extreme heat, and each element ionizes at a specific temperature. By analyzing such information together, the scientists hope to better understand the processes that heat the corona.

Amir Caspi of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and his team will use two of NASA’s WB-57F research jets take observations from twin telescopes mounted on the noses of the planes. They will capture the clearest images of the Sun’s outer atmosphere — the corona — to date and the first-ever thermal images of Mercury, revealing how temperature varies across the planet’s surface.

Diğer Haberler

BOEİNG WHİSTLEBLOWER JOHN BARNETT	DÜNYA KADINLAR GÜNÜ'NDE KADINLARA
WUHAN TIANHE AIRPORT TAXI GUIDES	ORTADOĞU’DA VEKÂLET SAVAŞLARI.!
IŞIK BİNYILI THE LİGHT MİLLENNİUM TÜYAP KİTAP FUARINDA	BEREN KAYALI & GENÇ GİRİŞİMCİ & TÜRK MUCİT
KARSU DÖNMEZ MEMLEKETİNİ UNUTMADI	TURKEY LETTER GIVEN TO BIDEN FROM 27 US SENATORS
RUSYA BİZE NE YAPTI, NE YAPMADI.?	JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER