China has proposed launching nearly 200,000 satellites into Earth orbit, potentially aiming to secure orbital space rather than genuinely establishing the largest satellite constellation.
On December 29, China’s newly formed Radio Technology Innovation Research Institute submitted a proposal for two satellite constellations, CTC-1 and CTC-2, to the Chinese government and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which manages frequency allocations in space.
Each constellation will consist of 96,714 satellites arranged across 3,660 orbits. This starkly contrasts with the current active satellite count of approximately 14,300, of which around 9,400 are SpaceX’s Starlink satellites, providing internet service. SpaceX has also applied to the ITU for a total of 42,000 satellites.
Victoria Samson from the US nonprofit Secure World Foundation indicates that this application might reflect a strategy of land grabbing in space. “They might be preparing for something much larger,” she suggests.
By raising this claim with the ITU, other satellite operators intending to launch in the same orbits must prove that their operations won’t be affected. According to ITU regulations, at least one satellite must be launched within seven years of the initial application, and all proposed satellites must be deployed within another seven-year timeframe.
“If you apply early and meet the deadlines, you can deter others from launching in your designated space,” states Tim Farrar, a US satellite communications expert. He further clarifies that China’s extensive applications for multiple orbits suggest some uncertainty in their constellation plans, giving them flexibility. “There’s almost no penalty for doing it this way.”
However, should this application be legitimate, achieving such a launch scale appears nearly impossible. In 2025, China achieved a record of 92 rocket launches. To deploy 200,000 satellites within seven years would necessitate launching over 500 each week, translating to hundreds or even thousands of launches annually.
This is not the first instance of spatial land grabbing; Rwanda previously applied to the ITU for a constellation of 327,000 satellites in 2021, yet this did not impede the operations of Starlink and other satellite providers. “Operations remain largely unchanged,” remarks Farrar. “It seems doubtful that Rwanda will achieve such a massive number of satellite deployments.”
China’s proposal underscores the intensifying rivalry among mega-constellation players, particularly among space internet companies vying for a market potentially encompassing millions or more, thus influencing global information distribution. Many entities are racing to catch up to SpaceX, including Amazon’s Project Leo (formerly Project Kuiper), which has launched about 200 of its intended 3,236 satellites. Additionally, China’s state-backed constellations, Qianfan and Wang, have launched several hundred of their anticipated thousands.
“Fifteen years ago, the notion of a single constellation hosting 1,000 satellites seemed far-fetched,” states Samson. “Currently, over 9,000 personnel are engaged in Starlink operations.”
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Karl Remström made his way down the mountain, feeling frozen and drained. It had taken him four hours to summit, followed by hours spent thawing out and fixing his gear. The trek home took another four challenging hours through the snow, a routine he repeated nearly every day for almost a month. But he was determined, undeterred by the frigid temperatures.
Upon returning to the small shelter he fashioned from branches at the mountain’s base, Remström checked his instruments and waited. Immediately, the galvanometer’s needle moved. He noted his findings and stepped outside to witness a massive beam of light reaching from the mountaintop into the sky.
It was December 29, 1882, and Remström was in northern Lapland, attempting to validate his theory regarding the origins of the aurora borealis. Few believed him then, but his findings would soon change that. He was convinced he had generated an artificial replica of the Northern Lights.
Lemström, a Finnish physicist, had become captivated by the aurora at the age of 30. While a postdoctoral researcher in Sweden in 1868, he participated in a scientific expedition to Svalbard, Norway—deep within the Arctic Circle. Although from southern Finland and having witnessed the aurora before, this marked his first experience with such a display at this latitude, and he was completely enthralled.
During that period, the cause of the aurora remained a mystery, spurring heated scientific discourse. Many of Remström’s contemporaries sought ways to create miniature simulations, with some achieving success. For instance, Swiss physicist Auguste de la Rive showcased in 1860 that a jet of violet light could be produced within a vacuum-sealed glass tube. He asserted it faithfully duplicated the phenomena of the Northern Lights, regardless of the primary color actually being green.
Two primary theories circulated about the nature of the Northern Lights. Some believed they stemmed from meteorite dust drawn by the Earth’s magnetic field, burning up in the atmosphere. Others theorized they were some form of electromagnetic occurrence, though the specifics remained hazy.
Lemström sided with Team Electromagnetics, positing that aurora borealis formed when electrical currents in the atmosphere flowed into cooler mountain peaks. Many researchers dismissed him as misguided or eccentric. Fiona Amery, a science historian at Cambridge University, stumbled upon Lemström’s nearly forgotten paper while researching auroral science of the 19th century.
Lemström was fueled to prove his detractors wrong. Instead of relying on small-scale simulations, he aimed to manifest a full-scale aurora in its natural environment: the frigid Lapland mountains.
By 1871, he held a lecturer position at what is now the University of Helsinki. He convinced the Finnish Scientific Association to back him in an expedition to Finnish Lapland’s Inari region, where he set up his device on Luosmavaara mountain on November 22 of the same year. His apparatus comprised a two-square-meter copper wire spiral secured over a two-meter high steel column, with metal rods pointing skyward connected to it. A copper wire route extended four kilometers down the mountain, linking to a galvanometer for current measurement and a metal plate for grounding. This intricate mechanism was designed to transmit and amplify electrical currents Lemström firmly believed were descending from the atmosphere, thus creating the aurora borealis.
Karl Lemström’s watercolor of the Olantunturi mountaintop experiment.
Finnish Cultural Heritage Agency
According to Amery, Remström likened the aurora borealis to lightning, suggesting that his device functioned similarly to a lightning rod. “He described lightning as sudden, while the aurora was gradual and spread out. He believed he could capture the aurora much like he could attract lightning.”
That evening, following his strenuous climb, Remström spotted a beam of light above the summit, and upon analyzing its spectrum, he discerned it matched the distinct yellow-green wavelength characteristic of the aurora borealis. He was certain he had evoked the Northern Lights. Unfortunately, no one acknowledged his findings due to the absence of photographic proof or independent witnesses. “He was regarded as quite obscure,” Amélie states.
This would have remained the case were it not for a fortunate turn of events. In 1879, the newly formed International Polar Commission announced plans for an International Polar Year—a year-long scientific initiative in the Arctic. “Suddenly, he could secure funding for aurora research,” Amélie says, “and he found himself in the right place at the right time.”
Arctic Mission
Recognizing the opportunity, Remström attended a planning conference in St. Petersburg, campaigning for the establishment of a meteorological observatory in Lapland. The committee approved, and Lemström opted for a site near the small Finnish town of Sodankyla. The Finnish Meteorological Observatory was founded in September 1882, with Lemström appointed as its first director.
He immediately sought a location to resume his aurora experiments, eventually settling on Olantunturi mountain, roughly 20 kilometers from the observatory. In early December, with a mere three hours of daylight and average temperatures around -30°C (-22°F), he and three helpers trekked to the summit and assembled a larger version of his previous device, spanning approximately 900 square meters.
The conditions were severe. Lemström later noted that it took four hours to reach the observatory from the summit, after which he needed to thaw out and frequently fix the wires, which crumbled under the weight of frost. He could work only a few minutes before his hands became numb, and this apparatus, too, operated briefly before freezing up again.
However, the effort proved worthwhile. Once the device was operational on December 5, Remström and his assistants witnessed a “yellow-white light surrounding the mountaintop; contrarily, no such brightness was found in the vicinity.” Spectroscopic analysis indicated the light matched the natural aurora’s properties.
Over the following weeks, similar occurrences transpired nearly every night. The most breathtaking display occurred on December 29, when a beam of light ascended 134 meters skyward. Lacking photographs, Remström resorted to creating drawings. His watercolor depicted a radiant beam surging to the mountain’s peak. He also erected two smaller aurora conductors on another mountain, Pieterintonturi, claiming to have observed comparable phenomena there.
Lemström was finally ready to share his triumph with the world. He sent a telegram to the Finnish Academy of Sciences, which gained widespread attention. The journal Nature published threedetailed accountsin its May and June 1883 issue, where Remström proclaimed that “experiments… unmistakably demonstrate that the aurora is an electrical phenomenon.”
Painting of physicist Karl Lemström, who endeavored to recreate the aurora borealis.
Public Domain
If he anticipated universal acclaim, he was gravely mistaken. Although his endeavors captured media attention, few colleagues concurred with his claims of having instigated the aurora borealis. “Some speculated he might have generated other intriguing electrical phenomena, such as St. Elmo’s fire or zodiacal lights,” Amery notes. “Others suggested it resembled an odd type of lightning more akin to ball lightning, and there were those who believed he may have fabricated it altogether.”
In early 1884, Danish aurora expert Sophus Tromholt attempted to replicate Remström’s experiment on Mount Esja in Iceland, but his device registered “no signs of life whatsoever.” A subsequent replication effort in the French Pyrenees in 1885 also faltered, except for civil engineer Célestin-Xavier Vossena, who narrowly escaped electrocution.
Unfazed, Lemström boldly asserted to have recreated the aurora again in late 1884, this time employing sturdier wires and adding a mechanism to inject electricity into the circuit, believing it would boost its energy. Nature published another report detailing these findings, yet Lemström’s zeal for working in extreme conditions began to wane, leading him to pursue new ventures (his next project involved using electricity to enhance crop growth). He passed away in 1904, still resolute in his conviction that he had generated the aurora borealis.
However, he did not. His hypothesis was flawed. Auroras arise from charged particles entering Earth’s atmosphere from space, rather than emanating from the ground. Still, Amery suggests he might have created something significant. “I suspect it could have been St. Elmo’s Fire, a form of luminous discharge,” she notes. “That’s my prevailing theory.” However, she also observes, “Perhaps there was a hint of wishful thinking.” The reality remains elusive, and we may never know—unless someone is inspired to construct a vast array of copper wire atop a frigid mountain during the Arctic winter.
In his book Quantum 2.0: The Past, Present, and Future of Quantum Physics, physicist Paul Davies concludes with a beautiful reflection: “To grasp the quantum world is to catch a glimpse of the grandeur and elegance of the physical universe and our role within it.”
This enchanting and romantic viewpoint resonates throughout the text. Quantum 2.0 presents a bold attempt to elucidate the fringes of the quantum universe, with Davies as an informed and passionate storyteller. However, his enthusiasm occasionally edges toward exaggeration, with his remarkable writing skills often compensating where more direct quotations might have been fitting.
Davies’ book is quite accessible, despite its ambitious aim of covering nearly every facet of quantum physics. He addresses quantum technologies in computing, communications, and sensing, touches on quantum biology and cosmology, and manages to explore various competing interpretations of quantum theory.
There are no equations in Quantum 2.0, and while some technical diagrams and schematics are included, they do not detract from the reading experience.
As a writer on quantum physics myself, I appreciate how clearly Davies articulates the experiments and protocols involved in quantum information processing and encryption—a challenging task to convey.
As a navigator through the quantum realm, Davies serves as a delightful and amiable companion. His genuine curiosity and excitement are palpable. Yet, this exuberance doesn’t always align with the rigor that contemporary quantum physics research demands. In my view, most quantum-related excitement should come with cautionary notes.
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Readers unfamiliar with quantum research might confuse speculative claims with the truth. “
For instance, within the first 100 pages, Davies asserts that quantum computers could enhance climate modeling—an assertion not widely accepted among computer scientists and mathematicians, especially concerning near-future machines.
In another section regarding quantum sensors, he mentions manufacturers proposing their utility in evaluating conditions like epilepsy, schizophrenia, and autism. I anticipated a justification or insights from experts outside the sensor industry, but the ensuing discussion was lacking in depth and critical analysis.
Additionally, the example Davies provides to demonstrate quantum computers’ advantages over classical ones dates back several years.
Less experienced readers in quantum research may find some of Davies’s speculative statements misleading, although the book remains an engaging read. This is underscored by bold assertions such as, “Whoever masters Quantum 2.0 will certainly control the world.”
To clarify, I don’t dispute Davies’ sentiments. Many gadgets that influence our lives currently depend on quantum physics, and the future may usher in even more quantized technology. I support this notion.
Emerging fields, such as quantum biology and better integration of quantum and cosmological theories, also seem poised for significant breakthroughs. Just ask the numerous researchers diligently working toward a theory of quantum gravity.
However, conveying this future to newcomers necessitates a blend of precision and subtlety in storytelling and writing.
Otherwise, the outcome may lead to disappointment.
Artistic impressions of the moa, one of the largest extinct birds
Christopher Cree/Colossal Biosciences
Colossal Biosciences has unveiled its ambitious project to “bring back” the New Zealand MOA, one of the most remarkable extinct birds in history, although critics claim the objectives may be scientifically unfeasible.
The MOA was the only fully known flightless bird, with no close relatives like emus. Nine species once inhabited New Zealand, including the turkey-sized bush moa (Anomalopteryx didiformis). The two largest varieties, the South Island Giant MOA (Dinornis robustus) and the North Island Giant MOA (Dinornis novaezealandiae), both stood at an imposing 3.6 meters tall and weighed around 230 kilograms.
By the mid-15th century, all MOA species were believed extinct, following the arrival of the Polynesian people, now known as Māori, in New Zealand around 1300.
Colossal has partnered with the Ngāi Tahu Research Centre, an indigenous institution affiliated with the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, along with filmmakers such as Peter Jackson and the Canterbury Museum. These collaborations are vital as Colossal aims to extract DNA and reconstruct the genomes of all nine species of MOA.
Similar to Colossal’s other “de-extinction” initiatives, this project involves modifying the DNA of currently existing species. Andrew Pask, a scientific advisor at the University of Melbourne, notes that the MOA’s closest living relative is the South American Tinamou, although it is considerably smaller.
This suggests the project may need to utilize the Australian EMU (Dromaius novaehollandiae) instead. As Pask explains, “Emus have large embryos and eggs, which are crucial for recreating the MOA.”
Previously, Colossal announced its so-called “de-extinction” of the thylacine. This endeavor has faced skepticism from external experts who argue that the animal is essentially a modified gray wolf. Pask insists that the MOA project involves greater genetic manipulation.
“With the MOA, we are making a concerted effort to accurately reassemble the species,” he states. “When this animal walks the Earth again, we will have no doubt it is a true MOA. It will be an engineered version of the original.”
The specific habitat for these reintroduced animals is still unclear. Mike Stevens from the Ngāi Tahu Research Centre emphasizes that both his organization and the local Māori community must fully grasp the “feasibility and ethical implications” of Colossal’s efforts. “Only after this discussion can we consider how and where the ‘giant MOA’ will fit into our world,” he mentions, raising numerous profound ethical and practical questions that need careful consideration before proceeding. Technology must prove its worth.
Conversely, Philip Seddon from the University of Otago believes that whatever Colossal creates won’t truly be a MOA and may exhibit distinctly different traits. He highlights that while Tinamous are the closest relative of the MOA, their evolutionary paths diverged over 60 million years ago.
“Ultimately, Colossal’s approach utilizes genetic engineering to produce GMOs that resemble an extinct species without genuinely solving contemporary global issues,” he asserts.
Pask vigorously challenges this viewpoint, arguing that insights gained from this de-extinction endeavor are crucial for the preservation of current endangered species.
Jamie Wood from the University of Adelaide believes this project may yield “valuable new perspectives on MOA biology and evolution.” However, he cautions that if Colossal employs similar methodologies to those used in the dire wolf project, they could struggle to persuade the public that the resultant creature can be regarded as a true MOA.
“While they may possess certain MOA-like characteristics, they are unlikely to behave as the originals did or occupy the same ecological roles.”
Strategies to uphold the current involve oversized versions of parachute-like ocean anchors
Ed Darnen (2.0 by CC)
As part of an ambitious initiative to avert severe climate change, large parachutes could be deployed into Atlantic waters using transport tankers, drones, and fishing vessels.
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) moves warm water from the tropics northward and helps stabilize temperatures in Northern Europe.
Nevertheless, the swift melting of Arctic ice and rising sea temperatures have hampered these currents, prompting some scientists to warn that they could falter entirely within this century. Such an event would disrupt marine ecosystems and exacerbate the cooling of the European climate.
Experts emphasize the urgent need to cut greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate the risk of AMOC collapse and other catastrophic climate “tipping points.” However, some are exploring alternative, more fundamental methods to preserve the current.
Stuart Haszeldine from the University of Edinburgh, along with David Sevier, introduced a concept from the British water treatment firm Strengite during a recent meeting in Cambridge, UK. They propose utilizing just 35 ocean tugs, each capable of pulling underwater parachutes roughly half the size of a soccer pitch, which could effectively move enough water to maintain the current. “A modest amount of energy and equipment can yield a significant impact,” Haszeldine remarks.
These parachutes, designed similarly to existing ocean anchors, stabilize containers in rough weather while also aiding in water movement across the sea surface. Each parachute features a central hole 12 meters wide to allow marine creatures to escape.
The operation would run 365 days a year in a rotating schedule, using drones, transport tankers, tugs, or wind kits. “It’s a small but consistent intervention,” notes Haszeldine.
Sevier refers to this proposal as “any Mary,” indicating a solution to stave off the severe consequences of AMOC collapse. “This is about buying time,” he asserts, emphasizing the need for the world to reduce emissions sufficiently to stabilize global temperatures at safe levels.
However, leading AMOC researchers express skepticism about the idea. Rene van Westen from the University of Utrecht, Netherlands, highlights that the density differences between cold, salty water and warm, fresh water play a crucial role in the descent and upwelling movements that sustain AMOC.
“If this idea is to work,” Van Westen argues, “you can only use surface wind to influence the top layer of water.
Stephen Rahmstoef from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research concurs. “The challenge lies not in moving surface water horizontally but in sinking it to depths of 2,000 to 3,000 meters and returning it south as a cold, deep current,” he states.
Meric Srokosz of the UK National Oceanography Centre believes the proposal is “unlikely to succeed,” given the variable weather conditions that complicate equipment deployment in the oceans.
Haszeldine welcomes feedback from fellow scientists regarding the proposal and hopes it will inspire ocean and climate modelers to assess the ecological and environmental ramifications of the plan. “I believe this warrants further investigation,” he asserts.
More generally, Haszeldine argues for increased research focused on climate intervention strategies to sustain ocean circulation: “I don’t see anyone else working on ocean currents.”
To prevent a fate similar to the dinosaurs, The European Space Agency (ESA) has initiated work on a groundbreaking planetary defense mission known as the Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Security (RAMSES).
RAMSES is designed to rendezvous with 99942 Apophis, an asteroid the size of a cruise ship, and accompany it as it approaches Earth in April 2029.
Apophis, with a diameter of about 375 meters, will pass within 32,000 kilometers of Earth’s surface on April 13, 2029. This rare event will be visible to the naked eye in parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia, attracting global attention. An asteroid of this size only comes this close once every 5,000 to 10,000 years.
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Astronomers believe that Apophis is unlikely to collide with Earth in the next 100 years, but the 2029 flyby will provide scientists with a unique opportunity to observe a close encounter.
The ESA’s Ramses spacecraft is set to reach Apophis two months before the closest approach, allowing monitoring of any physical changes to the asteroid caused by Earth’s gravity.
Ramses is scheduled to launch in April 2028 and arrive at Apophis by February 2029. The mission aims to observe and study how Earth’s gravity affects Apophis, potential landslides, and any new material beneath the asteroid’s surface.
Patrick MichelGerry McClellan, CNRS Director of Research at the Observatory of the Côte d’Azur, emphasized the significance of the mission, stating: “There is much we still don’t know about asteroids, but now, nature is bringing one to us to conduct the experiment itself. All we need to do is watch as Apophis is stretched and compressed by powerful tidal forces.”
Ramses will utilize a variety of scientific instruments to comprehensively study Apophis, analyzing its shape, surface, orbit, rotation, and more.
The collected data will be closely examined by scientists to understand the asteroid’s composition, structure, and how to deflect potentially hazardous asteroids in the future.
Experts predict that Earth’s tidal forces could alter the asteroid’s rotation, potentially causing earthquakes and landslides. They hope that Ramses’ flyby will offer detailed observations of how Apophis is affected by the close encounter.
Additionally, NASA is redirecting its OSIRIS-REx spacecraft (now renamed OSIRIS-APEX) towards Apophis, set to arrive about a month after the 2029 flyby.
OSIRIS-REx was the first US mission to collect samples from an asteroid, returning material from Bennu to Earth in September 2023. After successfully delivering the sample, the spacecraft was renamed OSIRIS-APEX for its new mission to explore Apophis.
“Ramses will demonstrate humanity’s capability to deploy a reconnaissance mission to rendezvous with an approaching asteroid in just a few years,” said Richard Moisle, head of ESA’s Planetary Defence Division.
A decision on the full implementation of Ramses will be made at ESA’s Ministerial Council meeting in November 2025. If approved, Ramses will not only enhance knowledge of asteroid deflection but also provide valuable scientific insights into the solar system’s formation and evolution.
NASA’s WB-57 research jet will be used to study solar eclipses
Amir Caspi
Solar scientists across North America will study April’s total solar eclipse to observe the sun’s strangest part: the corona.
Although it is briefly visible as a bright halo that appears only when it is total, it is a million times dimmer in visible light than the rest of the Sun. The corona is also a million degrees warmer than the sun’s surface, or photosphere, which only reaches about 6000 degrees Celsius, and extends millions of kilometers into the solar system.
The corona is where the sun’s magnetic field acts on charged particles to form complex shapes called streamers, loops, plumes, etc. Understanding the corona helps us predict the solar wind, the stream of charged particles that is blown into space from the Sun. This is the cause of the aurora borealis, but it’s also a potential threat to astronauts, satellites, and the power grid.
Expectations for the total solar eclipse on April 8th are extremely high. That’s because the total solar eclipse, in which the sun is completely covered, will last up to 4 minutes and 27 seconds, the longest such period on land in more than a decade. We would like to introduce some of the experiments that will be carried out in the future.
solar wind sherpa
Shadia HabalThe solar researcher at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy has been tracking solar eclipses for almost 30 years, using special filters and cameras to measure the temperature of particles from the deepest part of the corona.
Habal’s group, now known as the Solar Wind Sherpas, has traveled to far-flung places, including the Marshall Islands, Kenya, Mongolia, Norway’s Svalbard, Antarctica, and Libya. Habal and her team use filters to image the corona during each solar eclipse, some of which last only a few seconds. By studying the different wavelengths of light emitted by charged iron particles in the corona, temperature can be revealed.
Most often, solar physicists who study the corona rely on space observatory coronagraphs, which use telescope disks to block the sun. But these devices obscure the deepest parts of the corona, towers of plasma called prominences and sources of eruptions called coronal mass ejections.
“Observations during totality are very important,” Habal says. There’s no other way to continuously observe a portion of the Sun’s atmosphere extending from the surface to at least 5 solar radii. “This is fundamental to understanding how the solar atmosphere originates from the Sun and then spreads out into interplanetary space,” she says. Only then will accurate computer models be devised to simulate the corona and help predict space weather.
In the past few years, Habal’s group has made a surprising discovery. The Sun is currently heading towards her solar maximum in 2025, the most active period of his 11-year cycle when solar winds strengthen. Because the corona appears larger during the maximum solar activity during a total solar eclipse, it was thought that there is a close relationship between the solar cycle and the temperature of the corona. But it may not be that simple.
In 2021, Habal and his colleagues published a study based on observations made during 14 total solar eclipses that suggest: The temperature of the corona does not depend on the solar cycle. The lines of the sun’s magnetic field can open and spread outward in the solar wind, or they can close and become hotter, forming a loop. “We found open magnetic field lines everywhere, regardless of the cycle,” Habal says. This means that the temperature of the corona is almost constant.
high flyer
Observations have been impossible since 2019 due to bad weather. “In 2020 there was rain in Chile and in 2021 there were clouds over the Antarctic ocean, but in 2022 there was no solar eclipse,” Habal said.Team members are on an expedition to Antarctica. Benedict Justen Next time, he suggested, they could fly a kite equipped with a spectrometer that separates light into its component wavelengths.
A NASA-funded kite with a wingspan of 6.5 meters was successfully tested in Western Australia during a total solar eclipse in April 2023. It was launched on a kilometer-long tether attached to a vehicle. “It was truly miraculous,” Habal says. Due to bad weather, the team flew for the first time only 45 minutes before the total flight. “It was thrilling.”
This box-shaped kite will fly a NASA-funded scientific instrument to study total solar eclipses.
Clemens Bulman and Benedikt Justen
If the technology works well on future eclipses, more kites will be deployed in the future, and perhaps cameras will be added. “It’s much easier and cheaper than using balloons,” Habal says. But if things don’t work out, there’s always a backup.
During a total solar eclipse, two WB-57 planes will track each other just southwest of the eclipse’s maximum at 740 kilometers per hour, about one-fourth the speed of the moon’s shadow. At this speed, the total velocity increases from 4 minutes and 27 seconds to more than 6 minutes when viewed from the ground. “The WB-57 is perfect for this purpose because the nose cone has a built-in camera and telescope system that allows it to rotate and point at anything no matter what direction the aircraft is flying. ” says Mr. Amir Caspi At the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, he is in charge of the second WB-57 experiment to study the corona in a different way.
Caspi and his team will use a stable platform to image the eclipse using both a visible-light camera and a high-resolution mid-infrared camera developed by NASA. The latter captures light at seven different wavelengths and helps determine which structures in the corona are emitting their own light and which are just scattering light from the Sun’s surface. “To make these observations, we need to be as high up in the atmosphere as possible,” Caspi said. Infrared radiation is difficult to observe from the ground because it is absorbed by the Earth’s atmosphere.
live streamer
Caspi is also part of the Citizen Continental American Telescope Eclipse (CATE) project. The project is an attempt to create a continuous 60-minute high-definition film using a team of 35 citizen scientists who travel a total path from Texas to Maine. They have the same cameras, telescopes, and training, so they can make exactly the same kinds of observations. “Each team will be spaced out so that each station overlaps its neighboring station,” Caspi said. “If one station can’t get data because of clouds or equipment failure, that’s okay.”
He is hopeful the device will work after it was successfully tested in Western Australia last year. “That was the first solar eclipse I ever saw,” Caspi said. He was busy live streaming on his YouTube, so he could only watch a few seconds. “Our devices couldn’t go online, so we spent the whole time holding our phones in front of our faces.”
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