USA-SOLAR TELESCOPE World's biggest telescope to give scientists a window to the Sun

Record ID: 144533

  • Title: USA-SOLAR TELESCOPE World's biggest telescope to give scientists a window to the Sun
  • Date: 10th August 2015
  • Summary: MAUI, HAWAII, UNITED STATES (AUGUST 1, 2015) (REUTERS) ENCLOSURE FOR AZIMUTH CABLE WRAP ON TRACK FOR COUDE ROTATOR ENCLOSURE FOR AZIMUTH CABLE WRAP MECHANISM FOR ROTATION OF ENCLOSURE COUDE ROTATOR TRACK
  • Embargoed: 25th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA7OJ7NN60E2C9KMM9AT7ZJZ7PK
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The world's largest solar telescope is under construction on Maui's tallest peak with operations scheduled to start at the top of 2019.
    The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) is funded by the National Science Foundation, and the Haleakala observatory facility aims to study the sun and magnetic fields at a higher resolution and sensitivity than ever achieved before.
    "This telescope is designed to study the sun, and the sun is really our astrophysics laboratory," explained project director for the DKIST, Thomas Rimmele. "There is no other star that we would be able to observe with this detail and resolve structures on the surface of the star with this detail. For example, sun spots we cannot observe sun spots with any kind of resolution and at any detail on any other star, so in that sense, this telescope will provide the basis for our understanding of the universe," Rimmele said.
    The DKIST, previously called the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope, is the biggest of its kind with an advanced optical system and a four meter telescope.
    The DKIST will be able to precisely measure the coronal magnetic field which is normally only viewable during solar eclipses. This telescope will allow for a daily observation opportunity.
    "Theorists right now have a number of different models where they're predicting behavior that we're not actually able to confirm or check so this observatory will provide those fine resolution details to be able to match up with these different theoretical models and actually allow us to understand the physics of magnetic fields and how they transmit and percolate through the layers of the solar atmosphere," Project Manager for the construction of the DKIST, Joseph Mcmullin, said.
    Solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) of the sun, which can be referred to as 'space weather', directly affect life on Earth by impacting satellites, communications, cell phones, etc. The DKIST will allow for a more acute understanding of basic physical mechanisms at work that produce the flares and CMEs.
    "You really have to understand these fundamental physical processes to eventually be able to forecast the space weather events, at this point we really do not understand those well enough to be able to develop predictive capabilities such as we have here on Earth predicting the weather," Rimmele, who was previously the project scientist for the solar telescope, said.
    With the understanding of the sun comes a power of prediction allowing for a plan of protection and potential for harnessing its energy. The DKIST will allow
    The Coude optical lab is placed on a rotating platform which must rotate to compensate for image displacement as scientists track the sun. The structure rotates with extremely high precision, less than the diameter of a hair - in order to compensate for rotation of the solar image over the course of a day.
    "The types of things that this observatory will help us answer is, with the understanding of the physics we get to an ability we didn't have before which is the ability to predict, to be able to understand, when are these flaring events actually going to occur, the coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which if pointed towards Earth dramatically can effect the Earth's communications, both the satellites and even on the Earth itself impacting and shutting those down. There are historical events not in the distant past, but just a few decades ago, in Canada and other locations that have shut things down," McMullin said.
    At present a number of solar observatories are functioning both in space above the atmosphere and on land including in California, New Mexico and Arizona. However, the space observatories are significantly smaller which means a lower resolution image, while the land-based facilities are decades old and unable to discriminate between different theoretical models.
    The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope will begin official operations in January 2019.
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