The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii took the first image of a black streak so large it could fit the entire Earth inside.
The first photo of the Sun’s black streaks with the Inouye telescope. (Photo: NSF).
The image, taken when the Inouye telescope was in the process of being completed, revealed the dark center of the hot black streak at 4,150 degrees Celsius, although still cooler than the surrounding area. Countless streams of hot and cold gas emanate from the central area. The entire black streak is about 16,000km in diameter.
The Inouye telescope, located on the Hawaiian island of Maui, is dedicated to detecting flare activity in the Sun. Although not yet built, the device is still powerful enough to take close-up images of the Sun. “The black streak image has 2.5 times higher spatial resolution than before, revealing a magnetic structure as small as 20 kilometers on the surface of the Sun,” said Dr. Thomas Rimmele, deputy director of the Solar Observatory. National Sky (NSO) of the NSF, said.
Sunspots are the result of a concentration of intense magnetic fields and hot gas below. This is indicative of the Sun’s activity. The more sunspots on the surface, the more active the Sun. The Sun is entering its minimum phase, the period with the fewest sunspots in an 11-year cycle.
Black streaks often associated with solar flares and solar winds are the focus of astronomers’ research because they create space weather events that impact Earth, disrupting electricity and communication networks , GPS navigation, aviation, satellite. The Inouye telescope will support instruments to study the Sun’s activity, especially the magnetic field. Construction began in 2013 and is expected to be completed in 2021.