The sun as you've never seen it before
Recently built in Hawaii, a new telescope is providing fascinating images of the solar surface.
The National Science Foundation has just published photos of the solar surface - showing details of previously unsuspected richness - generated by the recently completed Daniel-K.-Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST), recently completed and located on the island of Hawaii. Each "cell", which is roughly the size of Texas or twice the size of Germany, is made from burning material that comes from the bowels of the sun and cools on the surface.
This telescope has a mirror four metres in diameter. If it were pointed directly at the sun, the metal would literally melt, but not this one, as it is equipped with an ice-filled basin the size of a swimming pool. The telescope allows objects 20 to 30 kilometres in size to be observed, images designed to detect the extreme solar activity in time - particularly coronal masses that threaten GPS satellites, broadcasting and the power grid - to increase the early warning time from the current 48 minutes to 48 hours.
My interest in IT and writing landed me in tech journalism early on (2000). I want to know how we can use technology without being used. Outside of the office, I’m a keen musician who makes up for lacking talent with excessive enthusiasm.
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