Solar telescope releases first image of sunspot

The world’s largest solar observatory, the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope of the National Science Foundation of the United States, has just released its first image of a sunspot. Although the telescope is still in the final stages of completion, the image shows how the telescope’s advanced optics and its four-meter main mirror will give scientists the best view of the Sun from Earth throughout the next solar cycle. .

The image, taken on January 28, 2020, is not the same naked-eye sunspot currently visible on the Sun. This sunspot image accompanies a new article by Dr Thomas Rimmele and his team. Rimmele is the associate director of the National Solar Observatory (NSO) of the NSF, the organization responsible for the construction and operation of the Inouye Solar Telescope. This document is the first in a series of articles on Inouye presented in Solar physics. The article details the optics, mechanical systems, instruments, operational plans and scientific objectives of the Inouye Solar Telescope. Solar physics will publish the remaining articles in early 2021.

“The sunspot image achieves a spatial resolution about 2.5 times higher than ever before, showing magnetic structures as small as 20 kilometers on the sun’s surface,” Rimmele said.

The image reveals striking details of the structure of the sunspot seen on the surface of the Sun. The streaked appearance of hot and cold gases emerging from the darker center is the result of sculpting by a convergence of strong magnetic fields and hot gases boiling from below.

The concentration of magnetic fields in this dark region prevents heat from the Sun from reaching the surface. Although the dark area of ​​the sunspot is cooler than the surrounding area of ​​the sun, it is still extremely hot with a temperature of over 7,500 degrees Fahrenheit.

This sunspot image, measuring about 10,000 miles in diameter, is only a tiny part of the Sun. However, the sunspot is large enough that the Earth can comfortably lodge there.

Sunspots are the most visible representation of solar activity. Scientists know that the more sunspots visible on the sun, the more active the sun is. The Sun reached solar minimum, the time with the fewest sunspots during its 11-year solar cycle, in December 2019. This sunspot was one of the first in the new solar cycle. The solar maximum for the current solar cycle is expected in mid-2025.

“With this solar cycle only just beginning, we are also entering the era of the Inouye solar telescope,” says Dr. Matt Mountain, president of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), the organization that manages NSO and the Inouye solar telescope. “We can now point the world’s most advanced solar telescope at the Sun to capture and share incredibly detailed images and add to our scientific knowledge of Sun activity.

Sunspots, and associated solar flares and coronal mass ejections, cause many space weather events, which frequently impact the Earth as a result of life inside a star’s extended atmosphere. These events affect technological life on Earth. Magnetic fields associated with solar storms can impact power grids, communications, GPS navigation, air travel, satellites, and humans living in space. The Inouye Solar Telescope is poised to add significant capabilities to the complement of tools optimized to study solar activity, especially magnetic fields.

NSF’s Inouye Solar Telescope is located on the island of Maui in Hawaii. Construction began in 2013 and is expected to be completed in 2021.

“While the start of telescope operations has been slightly delayed due to the impacts of the global COVID-19 pandemic,” said Dr. David Boboltz, NSF program director for the Inouye Solar Telescope, “this image represents a first glimpse unprecedented capabilities that the installation will bring to our understanding of the Sun. “

The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope is a National Science Foundation facility operated by the National Solar Observatory under a cooperative agreement with the Association of Universities for Astronomical Research, Inc. The Inouye Solar Telescope is located in a land of spiritual and cultural significance to native Hawaiians. Use of this important site for further scientific knowledge is done with appreciation and respect.

Provided by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA)