NEW OPTICAL DEVICE CORRECTS SUN’S IMAGES

A new cutting-edge optical device has been developed at the Big Bear Solar Observatory, New Jersey Institute of Technology. This device rectifies the sun’s images distorted by several layers of atmospheric turbulence. This provides scientists with the most accurately detailed real-time images of solar activity happening across vast stretches of the sun’s surface.

For understanding sun’s fundamental dynamics, as much data as possible has to be collected from a vast field of view. A comprehensive data will help us to measure the size, intensity and sequencing of the activities. This New Solar Telescope developed by researchers with the funding from the National Science Foundation is 1.6-meters long. It can generate simultaneous pictures of simultaneous solar activities like massive explosions happening across the sun’s vast photosphere.

This multi-conjugate adaptive optics instrument is placed downstream at the opening of the BBSCO telescope which is our planet’s highest resolution solar telescope. It has three mirrors that modify shape to rectify the path of the incoming light waves. These are directed by a computer which is linked to ultra-fast cameras. These mirrors capture light from three different altitudes and these three rectified images together generate a distortion-free image. 

Content Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170110161018.htm

Image: https://phys.org/news/2015-02-sun.html