Next week, a team of scientists will take to the skies off Ireland\u2019s west coast to observe one of nature\u2019s most spectacular phenomena: a total solar eclipse.<\/p>\n
The mission on Wednesday, August 12th, aims to provide a rare opportunity to examine the Sun\u2019s outer atmosphere, or corona, and gain new insights into how the Sun\u2019s magnetic field shapes and influences it.<\/p>\n
Researchers from Ireland and Italy will fly an advanced solar telescope aboard an Irish Air Corps Airbus C295 aircraft to study the Sun\u2019s atmosphere during the total solar eclipse. The eclipse\u2019s path of totality will pass approximately 350km west of Ireland.<\/p>\n
At the heart of the expedition is a new telescope called E-CorMag, developed by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics.<\/p>\n
Although it sits far above the visible surface of the Sun, the corona can reach temperatures of around two million degrees Celsius: hundreds of times hotter than the surface below. Scientists still do not fully understand why this happens.<\/p>\n
E-CorMag has been designed to help answer that question by measuring the magnetic field of the corona. These magnetic fields are thought to play a major role in shaping the Sun\u2019s atmosphere and releasing huge amounts of energy into space.<\/p>\n
During a total solar eclipse, the Moon blocks out the Sun\u2019s bright disc, briefly revealing the faint, glowing corona around it. For just a few minutes, scientists get a natural window into a part of the Sun that is usually hidden from view.<\/p>\n
During the observation, the aircraft\u2019s bubble window will be opened, giving the telescope a clear view of the eclipsed Sun. This means the instrument can observe without looking through standard aircraft windows, which can blur or distort the images.<\/p>\n
Flying also gives the science team a major advantage: the aircraft can be positioned to spend as much time as possible in the Moon\u2019s shadow, while also reducing the risk of clouds blocking the view from the ground.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Next week, a team of scientists will take to the skies off Ireland\u2019s west coast to observe one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[61,60,82,247],"class_list":["post-583029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}