Telescope shows Sun's surface in detail
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This picture taken by the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope shows the highest resolution image of the Sun's surface ever captured. It reveals a pattern of turbulent, "boiling" gas covering the entire Sun.
PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
HONOLULU • Images from a powerful new telescope installed on top of a volcano in Hawaii show the surface of the Sun in the closest detail yet, revealing features as small as 30km across.
They were captured by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, which sits about 3km above sea level near the summit of Haleakala volcano in Maui, Hawaii.
The telescope, which features the world's largest solar 4m mirror, could enable a greater understanding of the Sun and its impact on Earth, according to the National Solar Observatory (NSO), a public research institute headquartered in Boulder, Colorado.
The telescope has a specialised cooling system that provides crucial heat protection for it and its optics.
Also, it uses state-of-the-art adaptive optics to compensate for blurring created by Earth's atmosphere. The ground-based telescope will work with space-based Parker Solar Probe in orbit around the Sun and the Solar Orbiter to be launched this month to expand the frontiers of solar research and improve scientists' ability to predict space weather.
A pattern of turbulent, "boiling" gas is shown covering the Sun, which is some 150 million km from Earth. Inside visible cell-like structures, each around the size of the United States state of Texas, hot plasma can be seen rising before cooling off and sinking below the surface in dark lanes, as part of a process called convection.
Markers of magnetic fields are also visible with new clarity, the NSO said.
Studying the Sun's activity, or "space weather", can help scientists predict problems on Earth.
Magnetic eruptions on the Sun can disrupt satellites, disable GPS, impact air travel, bring down power grids and cause blackouts.
"This telescope will improve our understanding of what drives space weather and ultimately help forecasters better predict solar storms. The telescope will be able to map the magnetic fields within the Sun's corona, where solar eruptions occur, that can impact life on Earth," said NSF director France Cardova.
REUTERS/XINHUA
