- Joined
- Mar 26, 2010
- Messages
- 9,923 (1.79/day)
- Location
- Jakarta, Indonesia
| System Name | micropage7 |
|---|---|
| Processor | Intel Xeon X3470 |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte Technology Co. Ltd. P55A-UD3R (Socket 1156) |
| Cooling | Enermax ETS-T40F |
| Memory | Samsung 8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 |
| Video Card(s) | NVIDIA Quadro FX 1800 |
| Storage | V-GEN03AS18EU120GB, Seagate 2 x 1TB and Seagate 4TB |
| Display(s) | Samsung 21 inch LCD Wide Screen |
| Case | Icute Super 18 |
| Audio Device(s) | Auzentech X-Fi Forte |
| Power Supply | Silverstone 600 Watt |
| Mouse | Logitech G502 |
| Keyboard | Sades Excalibur + Taihao keycaps |
| Software | Win 7 64-bit |
| Benchmark Scores | Classified |
The Sun has a powerful magnetic field which slowly flips its poles every 11 years. Throughout this solar cycle, researchers monitor the Sun’s surface, with more sunspots indicating increased activity.
As a new 11-year solar cycle began last year, researchers have been working to better capture details of these sunspots. Now, a team of scientists in Hawaii captured the most in-depth image of a sunspot yet at the largest solar observatory in the world. More than 20 years in the making, the advanced technology of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope provides new solar insight.
Dr Thomas Rimmele, Associate Director at the NSF’s National Solar Observatory, released the image alongside an overview of the observatory in a recently published paper. “It’s really exciting to see the Sun and sunspots with this extremely high resolution, and see so many details that we’ve never had before,” said Dr Rimmele of the advances achieved with this new technology. Called adaptive optics, this technology corrects the light distortions created by molecules our atmosphere, allowing these images to be captured here on Earth.
What we see here corresponds to the varying degrees of temperature and magnetic field activity on the Sun. Unlike the red pimples we sometimes catch in the mirror, sunspots are actually relatively cool regions of the Sun – with the darkest part of the image reflecting the coldest region. However, “cold” for the Sun is still more than 200 times hotter than room temperature here on Earth.
The incredible image of the sunspot © NSO/AURA/NSF
Spanning from the centre outwards, the temperature streaks represent hot and cold gases, with solar flares spitting heat as the hot gases bubble from within the Sun. “These features of the solar cycle are clues that help us understand what’s happening inside the Sun,” Dr Rimmele said.
This cold centre is due to a concentration of the Sun’s magnetic fields in that region, suppressing the boiling of hot plasma inside the Sun, with spidering streaks linked to convergence of magnetic fields where these hot gases bubble up between cooler regions.
Captured by a state-of-the-art telescope with a 4m mirror, this image gives scientists a more detailed view. “The sunspot image achieves a spatial resolution about 2.5 times higher than ever previously, showing magnetic structures as small as 20km on the surface of the Sun,” said Dr Rimmele.
Yet, the telescope is still in construction, due to be completed in 2021, when we may expect even greater insight into this star’s behaviour ahead of this Sun cycle’s solar maximum, predicted to occur in 2025.
https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/detailed-sunspot-image-captured-new-solar-telescope/
Note : you may have seen this in The Lord Of The Ring
. I would never have guessed that it's a sunspot. It really looks like the eye of Sauron. I know that this photo is taken by the most powerful solar telescope, but does anyone know, can a similar result be achieved by using this imager