HOT SHOT: SCIENTISTS RELEASE HI-DEF IMAGES OF SUN SURFACE
Scientists have released the highest detailed images ever of the surface of the sun, and yes, they’re safe to look at.
The first images and video of the sun’s surface, captured through the National Science Foundation’s Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, shows massive celllike formations constantly boiling over, which the scientists say is made up of oozing plasma.
The telescope, on top of a 3,500-metre mountain in Hawaii, is the world’s largest solar telescope, featuring a mirror with a fourmetre diameter.
According to a press release, each of the “cells” on the surface of the sun is about the size of Texas (just under 700,000 square kilometres), and are caused by “violent motions” that occur when heat bubbles up from the sun’s core to its surface.
The plasma rises in these cells, and sinks as they cool, forming the darker lines seen in the pictures.
The NSF says the telescope will allow them to monitor “space weather,” such as magnetic eruptions on the sun’s surface.
These eruptions can cause solar storms that can scramble satellites and shut down power grids, and monitoring them will help scientists pinpoint causes of the activity.
The telescope “will be able to map the magnetic fields within the sun’s corona, where solar eruptions occur that can impact life on Earth,” NSF director France Córdova said in a press release. “This telescope will improve our understanding of what drives space weather and ultimately help forecasters better predict solar storms.”
The current warning time before a space weather phenomenon hits Earth is about 48 minutes, but the telescope could potentially detect them about 48 hours beforehand.