A group of images obtained by the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) located in Maui, Hawaii, have been disseminated, these are the most detailed images ever obtained from the solar surface.
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“With only the first images [de DKIST], you see details that we have never seen before. And this is really just the beginning, “said Thomas Rimmele, an astronomer and project manager at DKIST at the National Solar Observatory.
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The new telescope is designed to visualize the Sun and explore its magnetic field, allowing scientists to distinguish the strength and orientation of the field.
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Scientists hope to use this data to help solve the ancient mystery of why the Sun’s outer atmosphere is much hotter than its surface, what drives the 11-year cycle of magnetic activity, or how solar wind spreads to our system, among other questions.
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Because the solar magnetic fields they can affect satellite communications, disable power networks and cause technological blackouts in cell phones or GPS systems.
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At present these phenomena can only be alerted by the authorities up to 50 minutes in advance, but with the new telescope it could be predicted up to 48 hours in advance. Scientists are hoping to study these magnetic fields that may lead to new discoveries that will lead us to further advances by leaps and bounds.
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“This telescope will improve our knowledge of what governs space meteorology and will therefore help to better predict solar storms,” said France Córdova, director of the NSF through a release.
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The new telescope was built by the National Solar Observatory of the NSF and is administered by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA).
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The telescope has a 4 meter lens, the largest in the world for a solar telescope. It also has a powerful cooling system and a unique location on the summit of the Haleakala volcano that is 3,000 meters high on the island of Maui.
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“This telescope will improve our knowledge of what governs space meteorology and will therefore help to better predict solar storms,” Córdova explained.
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What do you see in the photographs?
In the published photographs and videos they show the solar surface with unprecedented detail. They show a “boiling” plasma pattern among a species of cells estimated to be the size of the state of Texas.
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The @NSF& # 39; s Inouye Solar Telescope images the sun in more detail than we’ve ever before. Close up, these images show, for the first time, the smallest features ever seen on the solar surface, some as small as 30km. # 2020SolarVisionBackground: NISP / GONG. pic.twitter.com/957y0TGSON
& mdash; NatlSolarObservatory (@NatSolarObs) January 29, 2020
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The phenomenon is the result of the hot plasma that emanates from the center of the star to the outside where it cools and then returns to the interior of the Sun.
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The NSF & # 39; s Inouye Solar Telescope provides unprecedented close-ups of the sun’s surface, but ultimately it will measure the sun’s corona – no total solar eclipse required. ?
More: https://t.co/UsOrXJHaY1 # SolarVision2020 pic.twitter.com/DO0vf9ZzKC
& mdash; National Science Foundation (@NSF) January 29, 2020
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The new telescope is expected to obtain more information about our Sun than the data collected since Galileo pointed its telescope at the star in 1612.
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