Daniel K. Inouye solar telescope captures a new image of sunspots: NPR

The most powerful solar telescope in the world has recorded an important step at the top of an active volcano in Hawaii, capturing a detailed image of a group of solar spots with the new tinker -visible filter (VTF).

Scientists hope that in the future, the instrument will help predict powerful and potentially damaging solar storms.

The Daniel K. Inouye telescope took the photo of the roaring star at the end of the last month of the Topcale of the Laakalā volcano in Maui.

The national solar observatory (NSO), which operates the telescope, said that the image had been taken during technical tests and that the VTF is not yet fully operational. But the fact that the telescope could have captured such an image in this phase shows how powerful the device will be.

The stallion of the visible adjustable filter (VTF), illustrated here, consists of two reflective plates, used to measure small differences in the light flow for different wavelengths using the interference it produces.

KIS / The National Solar Observatory (NSO)

hide

tilting legend

KIS / The National Solar Observatory (NSO)

The NSO describes solar spots as “intense magnetic activity zones” which can trigger solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections – phenomena which can have damaging effects on radio and electric communications of the earth.

“After all these years of work, the VTF is a great success for me,” said Thomas Kentischer, co-pruning investigator of Germany Leibniz Institute for Solar Physics, where the VTF was designed.

“I hope this instrument will become a powerful tool for scientists to answer exceptional questions about solar physics,” added Kentischer.

NSO and Kis engineers and scientists work on the visible tuning filter (VTF) inside the flowing laboratory of the Inouye solar telescope.

NSF / NSO / Aura / The National Solar Observatory (NSO)

hide

tilting legend

NSF / NSO / Aura / The National Solar Observatory (NSO)

Matthias Schubert, project scientist at the Institute, spoke poetically about the highly technical apparatus.

“The meaning of technological success is such that it could easily be said that VTF is the heart of the solar telescope Inouye, and it finally beats it forever,” he said.

The NSO has described the sun as “a plasma laboratory directly at our door” and said that the image of the VTF promises that over time, the telescope will help scientists predict better when powerful solar storms arrive to the ground in order to mitigate the damage that these geomagnetic disorders could cause.

While the team of researchers praised the success of the telescope, the road to its construction was marked by years of protests against the placement of another massive apparatus on what many native Hawaiians consider a sacred terrain.

The National Science Foundation Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, on Maui’s Laleakalā, is the largest solar telescope in the world.

National Solar Observatory (NSO), Aura, NSF

hide

tilting legend

National Solar Observatory (NSO), Aura, NSF