{"id":18854,"date":"2017-07-31T21:59:34","date_gmt":"2017-07-31T13:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/here-comes-the-suns-corona-what-eclipse-chasers-will-see-during-totality-in-august\/"},"modified":"2017-07-31T21:59:34","modified_gmt":"2017-07-31T13:59:34","slug":"here-comes-the-suns-corona-what-eclipse-chasers-will-see-during-totality-in-august","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/here-comes-the-suns-corona-what-eclipse-chasers-will-see-during-totality-in-august\/","title":{"rendered":"Here comes the sun\u2019s corona: What eclipse chasers will see during totality in August"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_352337\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-352337\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-352337\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/170731-corona-630x614.jpg\" alt=\"Coronal field lines\" width=\"630\" height=\"614\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/170731-corona-630x614.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/170731-corona-768x749.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/170731-corona-1260x1229.jpg 1260w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-352337\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This image shows field lines of a solar coronal magnetic model based on measurements from the National Solar Observatory Integrated Synoptic Program, one solar rotation before the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse. (NSO \/ NSF Graphic)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Skywatchers will see a rare celestial sight during the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse: the sun\u2019s shimmering outer atmosphere, known as the corona. What will it look like? Astronomers worked their magic to give us a glimpse.<\/p>\n<p>The corona is more than just a fuzzy halo: The superheated gas that makes up the sun\u2019s outermost layer tends to follow the patterns of magnetic force that arc around the sun.<\/p>\n<p>To come up with their preview of the corona, researchers at the National Solar Observatory in Arizona modeled the sun\u2019s magnetic field as of July 25, which was 27 days in advance of the solar eclipse. That\u2019s important, because it takes the sun 27.2753 days to make a complete rotation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe corona is not likely to change too much between now and the eclipse, unless we get lucky and a large active region appears,\u201d NSO solar scientist Gordon Petrie said in a news release. \u201cWe expect to see faint, straight structures protruding from the north and south poles of the sun \u2013 these are the polar plumes. We will be able to see brighter bulbs of material closer to the equator \u2013 these are called helmet streamers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Vanderbilt astronomer says the Solar Corona is the most exciting part of a total solar eclipse\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/THR4xR-6U3k?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The corona\u2019s magnetic field changes shape over time, depending on where the sun is in its 11-year activity cycle.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDuring solar maximum, such as the 2012 eclipse, the corona looks like a spiky ring around the entire sun,\u201d said David Boboltz, the National Science Foundation\u2019s program officer for the NSO. \u201cIn contrast, a solar minimum eclipse such as this one \u2026 will have lots of complexity near the equator, but will be drastically different near the north and south poles of the sun.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Although the eclipse\u2019s total phase will last no more than two minutes and 40 seconds in any one location, astronomers will be able to combine observations to study the corona\u2019 over the course of 90 minutes. And there\u2019s more to come.<\/p>\n<p>NSO is playing a lead role in building the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, or DKIST, on the Hawaiian island of Maui. When DKIST goes into operation in 2019, scientists will be able to measure the corona\u2019s magnetic fields directly for the first time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe solar corona is largely an enigma,\u201d NSO Director Valentin Pillet said. \u201cFor now, the best we can do is compare high-resolution images of the solar corona, such as those we\u2019ll obtain during the eclipse, to our theoretical models. But DKIST will allow us to actually measure the magnetic fields in the corona. This will be revolutionary in the field of solar physics.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This image shows field lines of a solar coronal magnetic model based on measurements from the National Solar Observatory Integrated Synoptic Program, one solar rotation before the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse. (NSO \/ NSF Graphic) Skywatchers will see a rare celestial sight during the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse: the sun\u2019s shimmering outer atmosphere, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1409,4378,1418,2170],"class_list":["post-18854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-eclipse","tag-skywatching","tag-solar-eclipse","tag-sun"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18854"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18854\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}