Solar eclipse gives NASA a rare opportunity to study Mercury
The jets, a pair of modified WB-57F‘s from the 1960s, will get a nice view of the eclipse at 50,000 feet. Up there, there’s less atmosphere to distort the view and scatter light (the sky is around 25 times darker), giving them possibly the world’s best view of the event. At the same time, cruising at 460 mph, they’ll follow the path of the eclipse and see it for longer than Earth observers, over…