On Saturday (14), during the solar eclipse, the NASA will launch three rockets to study the atmosphere amid the phenomenon.
The objective, according to a statement released by the space agency, is to investigate how the sudden drop in sunlight affects the upper atmosphere.
“Each rocket will deploy four small scientific instruments that will measure changes in electric fields It is magnetic , density It is temperature “, he informs.
According to NASA, the eclipse will cause the Sun to dim to 10% of its normal brightness. Unlike a total eclipse, in which all the light from the central star is covered by the Moon, Saturday’s eclipse will be annular — leaving a kind of “ring of fire”.
The rockets from the “Atmospheric Disturbances Around the Path of the Eclipse” mission, or APEP, will be launched from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, and it is possible that people in the region will be able to observe the objects launched towards the shadow of the eclipse .
The idea is for the first rocket to be launched about 35 minutes before the peak of the local eclipse, one during the peak of the eclipse and another 35 minutes later.
The APEP space vehicles will take measurements between 70 and 325 kilometers above the ground along their trajectory, in the ionosphere region.
“If you think of the ionosphere as a lake with some gentle ripples, the eclipse is like a motorboat that suddenly rips through the water,” said Aroh Barjatya, mission leader and professor of engineering physics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona. Beach, Florida.
“It creates a wake immediately below and behind it, and then the water level rises momentarily as it comes back up.”
The solar eclipse can be seen from all over Brazil, with some regions in the North and Northeast being on the path to annularity. The rest of the country may observe the phenomenon as partial.
Source: CNN Brasil
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