This photo shows the Sun in more detail than ever

The first images of the Solar Telescope Daniel K. Inouye from the National Science Foundation reveal unprecedented details of the sun's surface and showcase the world-class products that will come from this preeminent four-meter solar telescope.

The NSF Inouye Solar Telescope will allow a new era of solar science and a leap forward in understanding the sun and its impacts on our planet. Activity in the sun, known as space weather, can affect the systems on Earth. Magnetic eruptions in the sun can affect air travel, interrupt satellite communications and tear down power networks, causing lasting blackouts and deactivation technologies such as GPS.

These first images of the Inouye solar telescope show a close-up view of the sun's surface, which can provide important details for scientists. The image shows a turbulent “boiling” plasma pattern that covers the entire sun.

Cell-shaped structures

The cell-shaped structures, each the size of Texas, are the signature of violent movements that transport heat from inside the sun to its surface. That hot solar plasma rises in the bright centers of the “cells,” cools and then sinks beneath the surface in dark lanes in a process known as convection.

“Since NSF began working on this ground telescope, we have looked forward to the first images – recognizes France Córdova, director of NSF -. Now we can share these images and videos, which are the most detailed of our sun to date. The Telescope Solar will be able to map the magnetic fields inside the sun's corona, where solar eruptions occur that can affect life on Earth.The telescope will improve our understanding of what drives space weather and, ultimately, will help forecasters predict better solar storms. “

The sun is a gigantic nuclear reactor that burns about 5 million tons of hydrogen fuel per second

The sun is a gigantic nuclear reactor that burns about 5 million tons of hydrogen fuel per second. He has been doing so for approximately 5,000 million years and will continue for the other 4.5 billion years of his life.

All that energy radiates to space in all directions, and the small fraction that reaches Earth makes life possible. In the 1950s, scientists discovered that a solar wind blows from the sun to the edges of the solar system. They also deduced for the first time that we live within the atmosphere of this star. But many of the sun's most vital processes continue to confuse scientists.

“On Earth, we can predict if it will rain almost anywhere in the world with great precision, and the space weather is not yet at that point”

“On Earth, we can predict if it will rain almost anywhere in the world with great precision, and the space weather is not yet at that point,” says Matt Mountain, president of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, which administers the Inouye Solar Telescope.

“Our predictions lag behind the earth's climate in 50 years, if not more,” he adds. “What we need is to understand the underlying physics behind space weather, and this begins in the sun, which is what the Inouye Solar Telescope will study. in the next decades. “

Solar magnetic fields constantly twist and become entangled by the movements of the sun's plasma. These magnetic fields can cause solar storms that can negatively affect our modern technology-dependent lifestyles.

Magnetic field

Solving these small magnetic characteristics is fundamental to what makes the Inouye Solar Telescope unique. It can measure and characterize the sun's magnetic field in more detail than ever before and determine the causes of potentially harmful solar activity.

“It's about the magnetic field,” says Thomas Rimmele, director of the Inouye Solar Telescope. “To unravel the greatest mysteries of the sun we have to be able not only to clearly see these tiny structures from 150 million kilometers away, but also to measure with a lot Precision its strength and direction of magnetic field near the surface and trace the field as it extends towards the crown of a million degrees, the sun's outer atmosphere. “

A better understanding of the origins of possible disasters will allow governments and utilities to better prepare for the inevitable future events of space weather. It is expected that notification of possible impacts may occur earlier, up to 48 hours in advance instead of the current standard that is approximately 48 minutes. This would allow more time to secure power networks and critical infrastructure and put satellites in safe mode.

To achieve the proposed science, this telescope required new important approaches to its construction and engineering. Built by the National Solar Observatory of NSF and administered by AURA, it contains a 4-meter mirror, the largest in the world for a solar telescope.

“With the largest opening of any solar telescope, its unique design and cutting-edge instrumentation, the Inouye Solar Telescope, for the first time, can make the most difficult measurements of the sun,” says Rimmele.

“After more than 20 years of work by a great team dedicated to designing and building a first level solar research observatory, we are close to the finish line”

“After more than 20 years of work by a great team dedicated to designing and building a first level solar research observatory, we are close to the finish line,” he says. “I am extremely excited to be positioned to observe the first sunspots. of the new solar cycle only now increasing with this incredible telescope. “

The new Inouye solar ground-based telescope will work with space-based solar observation tools, such as NASA's Solar Parker probe (currently in orbit around the sun) and the Solar Orbiter mission of the European Space Agency and NASA , (which will be launched at the beginning of February). The three solar observation initiatives will expand the boundaries of solar research and improve the ability of scientists to predict space weather.

“It is an exciting time to be a solar physicist,” says Valentin Pillet, director of the National Solar Observatory of NSF. “The Inouye Solar Telescope will provide remote sensors of the outer layers of the sun and the magnetic processes that occur in them. These processes propagate to the solar system where the Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter missions will measure their consequences. Together, they constitute a true multi-messaging company to understand how the stars and their planets are magnetically connected. “

“This image is just the beginning,” says David Boboltz, director of the program in the astronomical science division of NSF and who oversees the construction and operations of the facility. “For the next six months, the team of scientists, engineers and technicians at the Inouye telescope will continue testing the telescope so that it is ready for use by the international scientific scientific community. “

The Inouye Solar Telescope will collect more information about our sun during the first 5 years of its useful life than all the solar data collected since Galileo first pointed a telescope at the sun in 1612, “he says.