NASA Releases Eclipse Footage from High-Altitude Flight
NASA has released new video of the total solar eclipse of August 12, captured by a suite of cameras aboard a WB-57 aircraft that took off from Iceland, as reported by starlust.org. The plane flew at an altitude of 50,000 feet along the path of totality—the regions where the Moon completely covered the Sun.
The footage shows the eclipse progressing from partial to total, darkening the sky as the Moon fully blocked the Sun, including a zoomed-in view of a prominence—a glowing loop of plasma—emerging from the Sun's edge.
According to a NASA statement cited by starlust.org, the cameras aboard the plane took high-resolution images at a rate of at least 20 per second, capturing the corona in several wavelengths of visible and infrared light. The cameras were part of an instrument developed at NASA's Langley Research Center to record structures, outflows, and rapid changes in the corona.
The objective of the observation was to investigate how solar prominences form and how the corona heats to a million degrees. The images are also expected to help scientists understand the relationship between material in the corona and the solar wind.
The Eclipse's Path and Historical Significance
The total solar eclipse of August 12 was the first observed from mainland Europe since 1999 and the first for Spain since 1905, according to starlust.org. Countries including Russia, Iceland, Greenland, Spain, and a small part of Portugal witnessed totality, while other parts of Europe, the United States, Canada, and northwestern Africa saw a partial eclipse.
Aviation Week's coverage, in an article by Senior Space Editor Irene Klotz, described total solar eclipses as "wondrous events," noting that millions of people in the path of totality across Spain, Iceland, and Greenland experienced the phenomenon last week. The article also highlighted the historical scientific significance of such events, citing the May 29, 1919, total solar eclipse, when British astronomer Arthur Eddington photographed stars.
Looking Ahead to 2027 Eclipses
Looking ahead, the next solar eclipses will occur in 2027, as reported by starlust.org. An annular eclipse is expected on February 6, followed by a total solar eclipse on August 2, with totality lasting 6 minutes and 23 seconds—an event described as the "eclipse of the century." The August 2, 2027, total solar eclipse is noted as the longest since 1991 and will not be visible again until 2114. The February annular eclipse is predicted to pass over southern Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, a small part of Brazil, and the Atlantic Ocean, with the Moon covering about 93 percent of the Sun and the peak lasting approximately 7 minutes and 51 seconds.