The complexities of a cluster of sunscreen are clearly seen thanks to the first light efforts of the tiring filter visible on the sun telescope of Daniel K. Inouye. Credit: VTF/KIS/NSF/NSO/AURA
A brand new tool has captured a group of dark surface sunscreen-stains caused by strong magnetic fields -ul of our glorious sun in an unprecedented quantity of details. This image was taken during the observation in the first light of the new visible tuning filter (VTF), which has recently been installed on the sun telescope Daniel K. Inouye (Dkist) of the US Science Foundation, near the top of Maui’s Haleakalā in Hawaii.
The VTF is designed to isolate specific wavelengths of the sun from the sun and scan quickly, allowing scientists to shoot hundreds of band images tight in a few seconds. The 4-meter mirror of the largest Dkist-the always in a solar-signific telescope that its images are also the highest resolution solar images ever acquired.
This intricate image of the sun was taken at a wavelength of 588.9 nanometers, commonly known as one of the sodium-d lines. These spectral lines are created when sodium atoms in the atmosphere of the sun absorb specific wavelengths of light and are useful for studying Doppler shifts due to the movement of the surface, solar rockets and much more. Each pixels in the original photograph corresponds to 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) of the sun surface. An image of the continental United States is superimposed in the lower right corner for the scale.
The VTF – which has been in progress for over a decade – is still in its implementation phase and will not be fully operational until 2026. But scientists say that its initial images provide an exciting look at how convincing future results will be.
“The meaning of technological success is such that it could be easily argued that the VTF is the heart of the solar telescope of Inouye, and is finally in its place forever,” said the scientist of the Kis VTF project Dr. Matthias Schubert in a press release.
