U.Hawaii Solar Eclipse Expedition Finds Cool Gas in the Desert (Forwarded)

Institute for Astronomy
University of Hawaii
Honolulu, Hawaii

Contacts:

Dr. Jeffrey Kuhn
Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii at Manoa
1-808-956-8968

Dr. Shadia Habbal
Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii at Manoa
1-808-956-6531

Mrs. Karen Rehbock, Assistant to the Director
Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii
1-808-956-6829

For immediate release: April 11, 2006

UH Eclipse Expedition Finds Cool Gas in the Desert

A team from UH's Institute for Astronomy has just returned from an
expedition to the blistering Sahara desert, where they found an unexpected
source of cool gas -- in the outer regions of the Sun.

The group traveled from Hawaii to Libya to observe the March 29 total
solar eclipse -- a rare event in which the bright disk of the sun is
obscured by the moon for a few minutes. They took hundreds of pounds of
scientific equipment, including three new instruments specially designed
to study the Sun's outer corona, a region that is visible from the Earth
only during a total solar eclipse.

Astronomer Jeff Kuhn stated, "Despite the daunting complexity of running a
series of infrared and visible instruments from the middle of the Sahara,
in the final analysis, it was the right choice -- the weather and
observing conditions were superb."

His colleague and expedition organizer Shadia Habbal added, "We received
enormous assistance from the people of Libya, and could not have succeeded
without their support."

Preliminary analysis of the expedition's observations show there was an
enormous magnetic bubble that was erupting during the eclipse. With their
sensitive infrared instruments, the team also discovered that the solar
corona, long known to have a temperature of several million degrees, also
contains a surprising amount gas that is hundreds of times cooler.

These observations open the door for refined measurements of the corona's
elusive magnetic field using large telescopes like the Advanced Technology
Solar Telescope, which may be built on Haleakala on Maui.

The group from the IfA also included astronomers Don Mickey and Ilia
Roussev, postdoctoral fellow Huw Morgan, and graduate student Sarah
Jaeggli. They established a camp deep in the Libyan Sahara desert along
the centerline of the eclipse path with collaborators from Colorado (Judd
Johnson), Appalachian State University in North Carolina (Adrian Daw), and
Bridgewater State College in Massachusetts (Martina Arndt).

The Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii conducts research
into galaxies, cosmology, stars, planets, and the sun. Its faculty and
staff are also involved in astronomy education, deep space missions, and
in the development and management of the observatories on Haleakala and
Mauna Kea.

Established in 1907 and fully accredited by the Western Association of
Schools and Colleges, the University of Hawaii is the state's sole public
system of higher education. The UH System provides an array of
undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees and community programs
on 10 campuses and through educational, training, and research centers
across the state. UH enrolls more than 50,000 students from Hawaii, the
U.S. mainland, and around the world.

FIGURE CAPTIONS

[Figure 1:
http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/info/press-releases/eclipse/cameras_med.jpg
(40KB)]
Judd Johnson and Shadia Habbal with two of the CCD cameras used to observe
the eclipse.

[Figure 2:
http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/info/press-releases/eclipse/settingup_web.jpg
(35KB)]
Team members set up their camp in the Sahara. From left to right: Jeff
Kuhn, Huw Morgan, Don Mickey (standing), Martina Arndt (squatting), Sarah
Jaeggli, and Judd Johnson.

[Figure 3:
http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/info/press-releases/eclipse/liquidnitrogen_web.jpg
(38KB)]
Jeff Kuhn prepares a dewar (a high-tech thermos bottle) by filling it with
liquid nitrogen (­321 degrees F/­196 degrees C) to keep infrared
instruments cool enough to function properly during the eclipse
observations.

[Figure 4:
http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/info/press-releases/eclipse/team_web.jpg (13KB)]
The IfA eclipse team (top row from left to right) Huw Morgan, Sarah
Jaeggli, Judd Johnson, Shadia Habbal, Martina Arndt, (bottom) Adrian Daw,
Jeff Kuhn, Ilia Roussev, and Don Mickey.

[Figure 5:
http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/info/press-releases/eclipse/corona_web.jpg
(17KB)]
While the disk of the Sun was eclipsed by the Moon, the solar corona
looked like flames emerging from the Sun's surface in this image taken by
the UH eclipse expedition to the Sahara desert.


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