The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope has produced the highest resolution image that shows a pattern of turbulent, “boiling” gas that covers the entire Sun
Hawaii| Just released first images from the National Science Foundation’s Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope reveal unprecedented detail of the sun’s surface and preview the world-class products to come from this preeminent 4-meter solar telescope. NSF’s Inouye Solar Telescope, on the summit of Haleakala, Maui, in Hawai‘i, will enable a new era of solar science and a leap forward in understanding the sun and its impacts on our planet.
The first images from NSF’s Inouye Solar Telescope show a close-up view of the sun’s surface, which can provide important detail for scientists. The images show a pattern of turbulent “boiling” plasma that covers the entire sun. The cell-like structures — each about the size of Texas — are the signature of violent motions that transport heat from the inside of the sun to its surface.
“On Earth, we can predict if it is going to rain pretty much anywhere in the world very accurately, and space weather just isn’t there yet,” said Matt Mountain, president of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, which manages the Inouye Solar Telescope. Courtesy National Science Foundation
Currently, the early warning for space weather is about 48 minutes, but they want to expand that to 48 hours eventually, according to a release by the National Science Foundation. NOAA also cited that space weather-affected radio communications for eight hours during Hurricane Irma as the storm made landfall.
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