Astronomers Capture the Highest-Resolution Photo of the Sun Ever Taken

A reader shares a report from MIT Technology Review: Astronomers have just released the highest-resolution image of the sun. Taken by the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Maui, it gives us an unprecedented view of our nearest star and brings us closer to solving several long-standing mysteries. The new image demonstrates the telescope's potential power. It shows off a surface that's divided up into discrete, Texas-size cells, like cracked sections in the desert soil. You can see plasma oozing off the surface, rising into the air before sinking back into darker lanes.

"We have now seen the smallest details on the largest object in our solar system," says Thomas Rimmele, the director of DKIST. The new image was taken December 10, when the telescope achieved first light. It is still technically under construction, with three more instruments set to come online. When formal observations begin in July, DKIST, with its 13-foot mirror, will be the most powerful solar telescope in the world. Located on Haleakala (the tallest summit on Maui), the telescope will be able to observe structures on the surface of the sun as small as 18.5 miles (30 kilometers). This resolution is over five times better than that of DKIST's predecessor, the Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope in New Mexico.

Re:

[Anachronous Coward]

It's so cool we're speechless.

Re: 23 minutes

[phantomfive]

They have an animation in the story, it looks like the parched skin of an ancient protoss zoomed in, except it is actually moving, great fissures the size of Texas. The fissures are moving really quickly in the animation, it would be interesting to know if that is real time, or sped up.

Re:

[93 Escort Wagon]

Since I am not an astrophysicist, I feel free to speculate those are convection cells.

Of course it's equally plausible that the surface of the sun is covered with billions of giant teeth, many of which are in desperate need of a root canal due to the sun's lackadaisical attitude towards dental hygiene.

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[fustakrakich]

The stars at night
Are big and bright
Deep in the heart of Texas

Give the sun a break

[burtosis]

The camera adds 10 sextillion pounds.

Re:

[az-saguaro]

Sextillion - don't make excuses - some guys like their sex with the big babes, better yet if they are stars.

Nice

[Dunbal]

Now how about some video so we can see what's actually happening there?

Re:Nice

[Mostly a lurker]

Now how about some video so we can see what's actually happening there?

Ask and thou shalt receive [bbc.com].

If my calculations are correct, this resolution is equivalent from being able to see the period at the end of this sentence from a distance of 6 km.

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[delirious.net]

press release: https://www.nso.edu/press-rele... [nso.edu]

The video is in the article

[dam.capsule.org]

Mandatory-I-know-it's-slashdot-nobody-reads-the-article-bla-bla-bla, but there is an actual animated gif in the posted link.

I have the photo here

[LynnwoodRooster]

Dithered down to greyscale:

*Yet*

[Immerman]

>We have now seen the smallest details on the largest object in our solar system

That should obviously be the smallest details yet seen. There's clearly details in the image small enough to cause single-pixel "jaggies" in places, and I see no reason to assume that those are the smallest details present on the sun.

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[Mordaximus]

There's clearly details in the image small enough to cause single-pixel "jaggies" in places, and I see no reason to assume that those are the smallest details present on the sun.

From the BBC article "Scientists can study features as small as 30km (18 miles) across in this sped-up movie."

Cob planet?

[mschaffer]

Anyone else thinking about the Cob Planet after seeing that picture?

Ironically ...

[fahrbot-bot]

They had to take two pictures. The first time, the flash was on.

Re:

[hcs_$reboot]

This is a well known technique: use the fill flash whenever the camera faces the sun

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[sconeu]

They needed the flash. To avoid burning out the camera, they took the picture at night.

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[dgatwood]

Warning: Do not look into telescope with remaining eye.

Might have been okay if they took it at night.

[The Snazster]

Possibly.

I Could have taken that!!

[BeemanIT]

Just take a high res picture of my skin. It looks similar without all the glowing.

Jesus the fucking summary

[lsllll]

I don't want to read the article. Why can't they post the resolution of the image in TFS?

You sure?

[Malays Bowman]

Looks like somebody made a Rice Crispie square out of Sugar Golden Crisp and took a closeup
of it.

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[timeOday]

I know, naively my gut response is, "what would there be to look at? It's just a ball of fire, it's like taking high-res photos of a cloud." Turns out - nope. What you see when you look is not much of what's there. Pretty neat.

Kids and short memories...

[_merlin]

So it wasn't enough for /. to start using the DEC logo for anything with "digital" in the summary, now they're using the Sun Microsystems logo for things about the star? This is just stupid. Why do I still visit this site?

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[rho]

I assume the gimcrack Slashdot codebase detects key words in the title and autofills the icon.

Just goes to show you, when you automate, sometimes you automate stupid things.

Re:

[twocows]

It's a pun. Lighten up. I think the sun can help with that.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

wait a minute

[slashmydots]

It occurs to me that I can create a 100,000 x 100,000 pixel file in photoshop, paint the entire thing as solid white pixels, and just say it's a realistic high res photo of the sun not adjusted for luminosity.

Re:

[Quirkz]

And the picture even includes a polar sun bear in a sun blizzard.

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[r2kordmaa]

There's the resolution of a digital image and then there is a resolving power of a telescope which is basically optical analog resolution completely unrelated to any digital image resolution. What is being talked about here is the latter type of resolution. You can't just conjure up more detail out of a telescope by magnifying more or by adding more pixels, there is a ultimate limit, all you'll achieve is the same blurry image with more pixels.

So high-res you have to put on sunscreen

[Provocateur]

Amazing what they were able to achieve, with the remaining eye.

Way to go, astronomers! Er, my hand is up here, Buddy...

Rising into the 'AIR'???

[ealbers]

", rising into the air before sinking back into darker lanes"
I had no idea the sun had AIR

Re:

[Killall -9 Bash]

The sun has an atmosphere. It's really big. Extends all the way out to the heliopause.

Naming Rights

[necro81]

I know who Daniel Inouye [wikipedia.org] is (was), and his importance to Hawaii. But, FFS, did they really need to name this telescope after him? Couldn't they have found a scientist to name it after (e.g., the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope was just named for Vera Rubin). Or, failing at that, found some tie-in to Native Hawaiian culture?