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MSU ASTRONOMER TO HAVE UNIQUE VIEW OF TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN
EAST LANSING, Mich. - On Feb. 26, the moon will slip between the Earth and sun, creating one of nature's most beautiful and unique events - a total eclipse of the sun.
Poised to have one of the more unique views of the eclipse is Michigan State University astronomer Jeff Kuhn who will watch the eclipse through a small hole in a plane, 18,000 feet above the surface of the Earth.
In addition to Kuhn, an MSU professor of physics and astronomy, the plane will be carrying several other scientists and some very unique equipment designed to measure the properties of the outer atmosphere of the sun.
"We'll be using a new infrared camera which was designed and built and MSU," Kuhn said. "It is absolutely unique. It exists nowhere else."
The goal of the research is to determine what effect the sun's magnetic field has on our earthly environment.
"One of the experiments will help us see how solar magnetic fields reach out in the Solar System," Kuhn said. "These fields are believed to interact with the Earth's magnetic field, causing geomagnetic disturbances during times of high solar activity."
These disturbances can include anything, from the disruption of radio signals to effecting weather patterns.
Kuhn is hopeful the research will lead to further breakthroughs, including the ability to provide an advance warning of increased solar activity.
The astronomers also are hoping their work will shed some light on the theory that the sun is encircled with rings, much like the planet Saturn. A number of scientists believe solar dust rings orbit the sun, but the glare of the sun obscures them.
Conducting up close and personal research on the sun's outer atmosphere, which is also known as the corona, can only be done when the sun's light is blotted out.
"Total solar eclipse conditions are required to see its faint glow, which is normally obscured by the glare of the sun which is a million times brighter," Kuhn said.
Even at a height of 18,000 feet, the astronomers' window of opportunity to view total eclipse lasts only about three or four minutes.
Because the total eclipse will only be visible in the Earth's tropical regions, Kuhn and colleagues will travel to Panama, where they will board their specially equipped, ex-Navy transport plane.
Because the scientists' equipment will literally be aimed through a hole in the roof of the plane, the aircraft will fly unpressurized. That, said Kuhn, will offer some unique challenges.
"The noise is just incredible," he said. "We have to use oxygen masks and a communication system to talk with one another."
The aircraft is operated by the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
Also participating in the expedition are scientists from the National solar Observatory in New Mexico, the High Altitude Observatory in Colorado, the Max-Planck Institute of Germany, and Rhodes College of Tennessee.
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