Solar Telescope Captures 10,000 Mile Sunspot That Can Fit Whole Earth In It
This image is the first sunspot generated in the new solar cycle, which is expected to hit solar maximum sometime in the year 2025.
We all know our Sun to be this enormous ball of fire that is helping things run on our planet like clockwork. But there is a lot more depth to this bright star and one telescope at Hawaii has captured a one-of-a-kind sunspot.
NSO
The image was captured by US National Science Foundation¡¯s Daniel K. Inouye Telescope that¡¯s located in Hawaii. It managed to get a spatial resolution 2.5 times higher than ever before. The image reveals the vivid sunspot spreading hot and cold gasses from its dark centre.
The spot in the centre is formed due to the fusing of intense magnetic fields with piping hot gas boiling from under it. The high concentration of magnetic fields in this dark region suppresses heat from within to prevent it from reaching the surface. These holes signify an active sun.
The sun reached its solar minimum during its 11-year solar cycle that ended in December 2019. However, this image is the first sunspot generated in the new solar cycle, which is expected to hit solar maximum sometime in the year 2025.
Dr Matt Mountain, president of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), the organization that manages NSO and the Inouye Solar Telescope, said: ¡°With this solar cycle just beginning, we also enter the era of 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 insights about the Sun's activity.¡±
NASA
The Inouye solar telescope sits in Maui, Hawaii and has been developed specifically to better learn and understand the Sun and its behaviour. What¡¯s fascinating about the telescope is that it is not even fully constructed, and yet it is able to capture such imagery in never-before-seen detail.
Dr David Boboltz, NSF Program Director for the Inouye Solar Telescope, ¡°While the start of telescope operations has been slightly delayed due to the impacts of the COVID-19 global pandemic. This image represents an early preview of the unprecedented capabilities that the facility will bring to bear on our understanding of the Sun.¡±
