Chasing The Sun: A Supersonic Celestial Observation
Published by When the moon passes between the earth and the sun, it casts a huge shadow over the earth as it blocks out the sunlight. For those at the edge of the shadow (the penumbra) the eclipse is partial; the moon seems to take a bite out of the sun as it passes. But observers standing in the center of the shadow (the umbra) see a spectacular solar eclipse.
Chasing the Sun: A Supersonic Celestial Observation
By Mr Ghaz, May 30, 2010
Chasing the Sun: A Supersonic Celestial Observation
Image Credit
When the moon passes between the earth and the sun, it casts a huge shadow over the earth as it blocks out the sunlight. For those at the edge of the shadow (the penumbra) the eclipse is partial; the moon seems to take a bite out of the sun as it passes. But observers standing in the center of the shadow (the umbra) see a spectacular solar eclipse.
Unfamiliar and beautiful features become visible around the edge of the sun. The prominences-the reddish spikes that protrude from the sun beyond the dark edge of the moon-are columns of incandescent hydrogen; they extend thousands of miles above the sun’s surface. The sun’s halo, the pearly white corona, also becomes visible.
For less than eight minutes these wondrous aspects of the sun are revealed in an eerie twilight. Then the moon continues inexorably in its orbit around the earth, and the spectacle is over.
Suspending the Eclipse
But on June 30, 1973, a group astronomer was able to lengthen that eight minutes and take a longer look at the eclipse. They had the help of a newly built Anglo-French supersonic airliner, the Concorde, which at that time was not yet in commercial service.
The eclipse could be observed best along an arc across northern Africa. Concorde 001 took off from Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, intercepted the moon’s shadow over Mauritania, and then raced east at 1,260 miles per hour to keep pace with it.
Normally, the view for a Concorde passenger is restricted because the cabin windows are very small, but for this occasion special windows were installed in the top of the plane’s fuselage. Measuring five inches in diameter and made of tough quartz glass and special plastics, the windows allowed instruments to be directed upward.
The narrowness of the view was amply compensated by its direction. The Concorde kept up with the moon’s shadow as it raced across Mauritania, Mali, Algeria, Niger, and Chad. During this time, astronomers from the University of Paris photographed the eclipse through a telescope stabilized by gyroscopes. Other French scientists and a U.S. team from Los Alamos, New Mexico, used different techniques to study the corona.
British scientists examined the infrared light from the chromo sphere, a relatively cool layer of hydrogen that shrouds the visible corona. They studied the convective movement of the gas, rising and falling as it is driven by the heat of the sun.
Such observations were made possible by the clarity of the view from the Concorde as it soared high above the haze of the lower atmosphere and above much of the ozone layer, which absorbs infrared light from the sun. Although nothing surprising was revealed, the scientists had a unique opportunity to study the phenomenon of a total eclipse, and to observe the sun while the moon hid its extremely harmful glare.
Concorde 001 kept up with the path of the eclipse for 74 minutes before breaking away to land at Forth-Lamy in Chad. The brief spell of celestial suspended animation had ended. It will be the year 2150-when the next suitable eclipse occurs-before a successor can equal the Concorde’s feat.
Liked it
On May 30, 2010 at 10:43 am
Great post as usual. Learn some new lesson here. liked it.
On May 31, 2010 at 12:46 am
Super pictures and a great article. Thanks for sharing
On May 31, 2010 at 4:17 am
Another educational post.
On May 31, 2010 at 11:47 am
You make learning fun!
Great pics.
Thanks,
Clay