NASA jets will chase the eclipse at 460 mph on Monday. Here's why.

The moon's shadow will pass over a vast stretch of North America during the total solar eclipse on April 8 , and NASA is sending jets to chase it.

Two of NASA's WB-57 jet planes will follow the eclipse as it traces its path of totality across the U.S., training special instruments on the sheathed sun's outer atmosphere, or corona. 

By studying the sun's outer atmosphere and its electrically-charged ionosphere, three teams of NASA scientists hope to better understand the corona's structure and temperature; how the sun impacts our planet's ionosphere; and spy any stray asteroids usually hidden in the sun's glare.

"The eclipse basically serves as a controlled experiment," Bharat Kunduri, lead researcher of the ionosphere measurement and a research assistant professor at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, said in a statement.

Climbing as high as 50,000 feet (15,000 meters) above the ground, WB-57s can soar above cloud cover and atmospheric particles to capture sharp images in visible and infrared light.

Related: April 8 total solar eclipse: Everything you need to know

The jets will time their takeoffs and flights precisely with the eclipse's passing; picking up to speeds of 460 mph (740 km/h) to stretch out the observed totality time by an extra 25% — making it roughly 6 minutes and 22 seconds. (For comparison, the longest totality visible on the ground will be 4 minutes, 27 seconds in Torreón, Mexico).