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Julio brought us the best close-up photos of the sun the world has ever seen. Now, there are some new ones.
In a new photographic publication from the Leibniz Institute for Solar Physics, we get close-up views of the sun’s surface, which looks like an elaborate web of fiery land masses that are, in fact, solar magnetic fields displayed at very high resolution.
Another photo shows us what a sunspot looks like up close, appearing as a darker spot on the sun’s surface. The Mashable weekend team strongly noted that this image exudes great “vibes.”
Apologies to the entire scientific community, but hey, it’s true.
The images come from the largest solar telescope in Europe, GREGOR. They are some of the first to surface after a major upgrade project the telescope went through.
“This was a very exciting project, but also extremely challenging. In just one year, we completely redesigned the optics, mechanics and electronics to achieve the best possible image quality.” said project leader Dr. Lucia Kleint in the press release.
The team apparently saw a breakthrough in March 2020 when the global pandemic left them “stranded” at the observatory. They used that time to “set up the optical lab from scratch,” but were unable to image the sun due to winter snow storms.
“When Spain reopened in July,” the statement continued, “the team flew in immediately and obtained the highest resolution images of the Sun ever taken by a European telescope.”
Images released in July, meanwhile, come from the Solar Orbiter. That, a joint project between NASA and the European Space Agency, launched the telescope-equipped satellite into space on February 9. The photos we saw in July came from its first “close” pass through the sun, approximately 77 million kilometers from the star.
The GREGOR images, meanwhile, were captured here on Earth by a very high-powered telescope. The level of detail evident in the images is incredibly impressive, but so is the upgrade to the telescope itself. Especially in such a short period of time.
“The project was quite risky because such telescope upgrades often take years, but great teamwork and meticulous planning have led to this success,” Dr. Svetlana Berdyugina, director of the Leibniz Institute for Solar Physics, said in a statement. “Now we have a powerful instrument to solve puzzles about the Sun.”
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