The Pin
January 30 2020, 9:34 am
Astronomers have just launched the highest resolution image of the Sun. Taken by the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Maui, Hawaii, it gives us an unprecedented view of our nearest star and brings us closer to solving several long-standing mysteries.
By Neel V. Patel in MIT Technology Review | Free English translation by lapatilla.com
The new image demonstrates the power and potential of the telescope. It shows a surface that is divided into discrete cells the size of the state of Texas, USA, as cracked sections on the desert floor. You can see plasma coming out of the surface, rising in the air before sinking into the darkest lanes.
“Now we have seen the smallest details about the largest object in our solar system,” says Thomas Rimmele, the director of DKIST. The new image was taken on December 10, when the telescope reached the first light. It is still technically under construction, with three instruments more ready to connect.
When formal observations begin in July, DKIST, with its 13-foot mirror, will be the most powerful solar telescope in the world. Located in Haleakala (the highest summit of Maui), the telescope can observe structures on the surface of the sun as small as 18.5 miles (30 kilometers). This resolution is five times better than that of DKIST’s predecessor, the Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope in New Mexico.
DKIST was specifically designed to make precise measurements of the sun’s magnetic field throughout the corona (the outermost region of its atmosphere) and answer questions such as why the corona is millions of degrees warmer than the sun’s surface.
Other instruments that will be online in the next six months will also collect data related to temperature, speed and solar structures. The new solar cycle is about to start again soon, and this means that there will be a lot of solar activity to detect.
To observe the sun, you cannot simply build an old-fashioned telescope. DKIST has one of the most complex solar adaptive optical systems in the world. Use deformable mirrors to compensate for distortions caused by Earth’s atmosphere. The shape of the mirror is adjusted 2,000 times per second. Looking at the sun also causes the telescope to get hot enough to melt the metal. To cool it, the DKIST team has to use an ice pool and 7.5 miles of refrigerant distributed in pipes.
There is a good reason why we should look more closely at the sun. When the solar atmosphere releases its magnetic energy, explosive phenomena occur such as solar eruptions that release ultra-energized particles through the solar system in all directions, including ours. East “Space weather” It can wreak havoc on things like GPS and electrical networks. Learning more about solar activity could give us more notice of when dangerous space weather should hit.
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