by From traversing sand dunes in the Sahara Desert to keeping watch for polar bears in the Arctic, a group of solar scientists known as the “Solar Wind Sherpas” led by Shadia Habbal, have traveled to the ends of the Earth to scientifically observe total solar eclipses – the fleeting moments when the Moon completely blocks the Sun, temporarily turning day into night.
With the images, they’ve uncovered a surprising finding about the Sun’s wind and its wispy outer atmosphere – the corona – which is only visible in its entirety during an eclipse.
From more than a decade’s worth of total eclipse observations taken around the world, the team noticed that the corona maintains a fairly constant temperature, despite dynamical changes to the region that occur on an 11-year rotation known as the solar cycle.
Similarly, the solar wind – the steady stream of particles the Sun releases from the corona out across the solar system – matches that same temperature.
Source
With the images, they’ve uncovered a surprising finding about the Sun’s wind and its wispy outer atmosphere – the corona – which is only visible in its entirety during an eclipse.
From more than a decade’s worth of total eclipse observations taken around the world, the team noticed that the corona maintains a fairly constant temperature, despite dynamical changes to the region that occur on an 11-year rotation known as the solar cycle.
Similarly, the solar wind – the steady stream of particles the Sun releases from the corona out across the solar system – matches that same temperature.
Source
