Solar telescope releases first image of a sunspot

The world’s largest solar observatory, the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, just released its first image of a sunspot. Although the telescope is still in the final phases of completion, the image is an indication of how the telescope’s advanced optics and four-meter primary mirror will give scientists the best view of the Sun from Earth throughout…

ESA’s Solar Orbiter made its 1st close approach to the sun today

Solar Orbiter swept as close as 50 million miles (77 million km) to our sun’s surface. Now scientists are at work testing the spacecraft’s 10 science instruments, including the 6 telescopes on-board. New images, to be released in mid-July, will be the closest of the sun ever captured. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/esa-solar-orbiter-1st-perihelion-june-15-2020…

A ‘bucket full of photons’ may yield clues about the Sun’s magnetic fields

The first images from the National Science Foundation’s 4-meter Inouye Solar Telescope, released in late January, revealed the Sun in jaw-dropping detail. The telescope’s size—it is the largest solar telescope in the world—allowed researchers to zoom in on the solar surface at a higher resolution than ever before. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-04-bucket-full-photons-yield-clues.html…

The World’s Largest Solar Telescope Snaps Its First Photograph

sciencehabit quotes Science magazine: A new close-up of the turbulent boiling plasma of the solar surface is the debut image of the largest telescope ever built for staring at the Sun. Sporting a 4-meter-wide mirror — twice the size of any existing solar scope—and a vantage point 3000 meters up on the summit of Haleakala on the Hawaiian island of Maui…

Newest solar telescope releases its 1st images

The clarity of these images from the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii is thanks to the telescope’s 4-meter mirror, the world’s largest for a solar telescope. “It’s the biggest jump in our ability to study the sun since Galileo’s time,” a scientist said. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/first-images-inouye-solar-telescope-jan2020…

Astronomers Capture the Highest-Resolution Photo of the Sun Ever Taken

Iwastheone shares a report from MIT Technology Review: Astronomers have just released the highest-resolution image of the sun. Taken by the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Maui, it gives us an unprecedented view of our nearest star and brings us closer to solving several long-standing mysteries. The new image demonstrates the telescope’s potential power. It shows off a surface that’s…