2023-09-08 10:19:00
A little “hack” allows you to see structures that are normally outshone by the sun.
Researchers at ESA and NASA have used a new method to capture unprecedented images of the sun. They were able to record some of the extreme ultraviolet wavelengths so far almost impossible to depict war.
The image was created through a “hack”. EUI Camera (Extreme Ultraviolet Imager) of the “Solar Orbiter” spacecraft. The EUI provides high-resolution images of the structures in the solar atmosphere, also known as Crown known. Normally it works like this: a protective flap opens and exposes the instrument to solar radiation. After a while the flap closes again, ending the recording.
Small change before the mission starts
Frédéric Auchère from the Institute of Space Astrophysics of Paris-Sud University However, he had a new idea when building the EUI. At the last minute he made a modification to the protective flap and added a “Thumb” which blocked the sun when the flap was only half closed. “I had the idea to just do it and see if it would work. “It’s actually a very simple change to the instrument,” says Auchère in one broadcast quoted.
➤ Read more: ESA image shows the sun in the highest resolution to date
This “thumb” now allows researchers to look deeper into the sun’s atmosphere. It covers the bright disk of the sun and the EUI can detect the ultraviolet light of the surrounding corona, which is a million times weaker. The Solar Orbiter launched into space in February 2020, tests with this as “Darkener“The tool referred to has been running since 2021.
New insights thanks to a small darkening device
Now the EUI team has published a video of their recordings. The film shows the sun’s ultraviolet corona, being in the middle subsequently a picture of the sun disk was inserted. This was taken during NASA’s STEREO mission, in which a spacecraft happened to be looking at the Sun from almost the same direction as Solar Orbiter at the same time.
“We have shown that the darkener works so well that we now have one new type of instrument “We can think about something that can image both the sun and the corona around it,” says Daniel Müller, project scientist for Solar Orbiter at ESA. Thanks to the “thumb”, there is already a lot of new scientific knowledge at the depths that can now be seen There are magnetic structures in areas of the solar atmosphere that have not yet been thoroughly researched.
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