{"id":56623,"date":"2024-04-03T09:08:04","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T09:08:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/84e004d7-7cf0-4edb-a95d-c5033885a479"},"modified":"2024-04-03T10:08:23","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T10:08:23","slug":"cant-wait-for-the-great-american-eclipse-see-one-every-day-courtesy-of-nasas-solar-spacecraft","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/cant-wait-for-the-great-american-eclipse-see-one-every-day-courtesy-of-nasas-solar-spacecraft\/","title":{"rendered":"Can’t wait for the Great American Eclipse? See one every day, courtesy of NASA’s solar spacecraft"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Iain Todd\n <\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 03 April 2024 at 09:08 AM<\/p>

\n\n

The countdown to the April 8 total solar eclipse<\/a> is on, and eclipse-chasers have been waiting months – even years – to catch a glimpse of the Moon crossing the Sun in our sky.<\/p>

But did you know you can see the effect of a total solar eclipse<\/a> every day, courtesy of a NASA\/ESA solar observatory?<\/p>

The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is a joint NASA and European Space Agency spacecraft that orbits the Sun and continuously captures images of our host star.<\/p>

Artist impression of the NASA\/ESA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). Credit: Spacecraft: ESA\/ATG medialab; Sun: ESA\/NASA SOHO<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Solar eclipses and solar science<\/strong><\/h2>

Total solar eclipses are a magnificent sight, but they’re also a great chance for solar scientists to observe our host star in detail.<\/p>

This is because during a total solar eclipse, the Moon covers the entirety of the solar disk.<\/p>

It’s a coincidence of nature that the Moon is just the right size and just the right distance from Earth for this to happen.<\/p>

\"Total
The Sun’s corona is visible in this image of a total solar eclipse captured by Pauline Phillips, Shoshone, Wyoming, USA.<\/figcaption><\/figure>

When the Moon does block out the Sun’s disk, this makes the Sun’s corona – its outermost layer – more visible.<\/p>

During a total solar eclipse, astronomers can better observe wisps of the Sun’s extended atmosphere as hot gas from the Sun streams into space.<\/p>

Just as holding up your hand to block the Sun on a sunny day helps you see what’s in front of you, the Moon blocking the Sun during a total solar eclipse helps solar scientists see the corona.<\/p>

\"A
A view of the Sun’s corona captured by the SOHO spacecraft on 3 April 2024. The large red disc in the centre is the coronagraph. Credit: NASA\/ESA\/SOHO<\/figcaption><\/figure>

SOHO’s coronagraph<\/strong><\/h2>

This is the premise behind the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory’s observations of our Sun.<\/p>

It uses a device called a ‘coronagraph’, which creates an artificial solar eclipse by blocking out light from the Sun, the same way the Moon does.<\/p>

This enables astronomers to see parts of the Sun’s atmosphere that would normally be drowned out by its powerful brightness.<\/p>

And it’s possible for anyone to observe these artificial solar eclipses by using the online Helioviewer Eclipse Watch<\/a> tool.<\/p>

It provides eclipse-like images captured over 100 times a day by the Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph Experiment (LASCO) instrument on the SOHO spacecraft.<\/p>

You can also see this by accessing SOHO’s realtime data of the Sun<\/a>.<\/p>

Just refresh the page to see the latest artificial eclipse captured by SOHO<\/p>

\"A
A view of the Sun’s corona, captured by the NASA\/ESA SOHO spacecraft. A coronagraph blocks out the solar disc, leaving the corona visible. This operates similar to the Moon passing in front of the Sun during a solar eclipse. Image of Moon imposed for scale. Credit: NASA\/ESA\/SOHO<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Solar eclipses and the Solar Cycle<\/strong><\/h2>

The Sun goes through periods of being very active, and periods of being very quiet. These peak and trough in a roughly 11-year cycle called the Solar Cycle<\/a>.<\/p>

Solar scientists can learn a lot about the Sun’s activity during a solar eclipse, but can get a view of an eclipse effect every day, courtesy of the SOHO spacecraft.<\/p>

LASCO observes the solar corona, and especially coronal mass ejections, which erupt from the Sun during periods of solar activity.<\/p>

In the Helioviewer Eclipse Watch tool, an image of the Moon has been transposed for scale.<\/p>

This shows how the Moon actually covers a smaller portion of the Sun’s disk than SOHO’s coronagraph, meaning that on the day of a total solar eclipse, solar scientists get the chance to see more of the Sun’s outer atmosphere than usual.<\/p>

Total solar eclipses are not just beautiful; they’re a chance to learn so much more about our host star and the changing face of the Solar Cycle.<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n

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By Iain Todd Published: Wednesday, 03 April 2024 at 09:08 AM The countdown to the April 8 total solar eclipse is on, and eclipse-chasers have been waiting months – even years – to catch a glimpse of the Moon crossing the Sun in our sky. But did you know you can see the effect of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":56624,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"4"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/04\/cant-wait-for-the-great-american-eclipse-see-one-every-day-courtesy-of-nasas-solar-spacecraft.jpg",1200,1200,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/04\/cant-wait-for-the-great-american-eclipse-see-one-every-day-courtesy-of-nasas-solar-spacecraft-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/04\/cant-wait-for-the-great-american-eclipse-see-one-every-day-courtesy-of-nasas-solar-spacecraft-300x300.jpg",300,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/04\/cant-wait-for-the-great-american-eclipse-see-one-every-day-courtesy-of-nasas-solar-spacecraft-768x768.jpg",768,768,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/04\/cant-wait-for-the-great-american-eclipse-see-one-every-day-courtesy-of-nasas-solar-spacecraft-1024x1024.jpg",800,800,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/04\/cant-wait-for-the-great-american-eclipse-see-one-every-day-courtesy-of-nasas-solar-spacecraft.jpg",1200,1200,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/04\/cant-wait-for-the-great-american-eclipse-see-one-every-day-courtesy-of-nasas-solar-spacecraft.jpg",1200,1200,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Iain Todd Published: Wednesday, 03 April 2024 at 09:08 AM The countdown to the April 8 total solar eclipse is on, and eclipse-chasers have been waiting months – even years – to catch a glimpse of the Moon crossing the Sun in our sky. But did you know you can see the effect of…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/56623"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}