Solar Prominence 1: Adaptive Optics = Clearest View Yet | Big Bear Solar Observatory
The Sun’s corona—the outermost layer of its atmosphere, visible only during a total solar eclipse—has long intrigued scientists due to its extreme temperatures, violent eruptions, and large prominences. However, turbulence in the Earth’s atmosphere has caused image blur and hindered observations of the corona. A ground-breaking recent development by scientists from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) National Solar Observatory (NSO), and New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), is changing that by using adaptive optics to remove the blur.
As published in Nature Astronomy, this pioneering ‘coronal adaptive optics’ technology has produced the most astonishing, clearest images and videos of fine-structure in the corona to date. This development will open the door for deeper insights into the corona’s enigmatic behavior and the processes driving space weather.
Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and installed at the 1.6-meter Goode Solar Telescope (GST), operated by NJIT’s Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research (CSTR) at Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) in California, “Cona”—the adaptive optics system responsible for these new images—compensates for the blur caused by air turbulence in the Earth’s atmosphere—similar to the bumpy air passengers feel during a flight.
“The turbulence in the air severely degrades images of objects in space, like our Sun, seen through our telescopes. But we can correct for that,” says Dirk Schmidt, NSO Adaptive Optics Scientist who led the development.
Among the team’s remarkable observations is a video of a quickly restructuring solar prominence unveiling fine, turbulent internal flows. Solar prominences are large, bright features, often appearing as arches or loops, extending outward from the Sun’s surface.
This view of a prominence above the solar surface is a snapshot of a 4-minute time-lapse video that reveals its rapid, fine, and turbulent restructuring with unprecedented detail. The Sun’s fluffy-looking surface is covered by “spicules”, short-lived plasma jets, whose creation is still the subject of scientific debate. The streaks on the right of this image are coronal rain falling down onto the Sun’s surface.
This imagery was taken by the Goode Solar Telescope at Big Bear Solar Observatory. It shows the hydrogen-alpha light emitted by the solar plasma. The imagery is artificially colorized, yet based on the color of hydrogen-alpha light, and darker color is brighter light.
The 1.6-meter Goode Solar Telescope (GST), is located in Big Bear Lake, California. The steady temperature of the water surface around it helps keep the air around the telescope calm, reducing the optical effects of turbulent air that degrades the telescope’s images of the Sun and that the adaptive optics further removes to achieve the maximum image detail. The GST is the second-largest solar telescope in the world and is home to several instruments that scientists use to analyze physical processes of the Sun.
Release Date: May 27, 2025
#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #SpaceWeather #Sun #Star #SolarProminences #SolarPlasma #SolarMagneticField #Heliophysics #SolarSystem #NationalSolarObservatory #GoodeSolarTelescope #GST #NSF #NJIT #BigBearLake #California #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video
No comments:
Post a Comment