Posted on 04/25/2025 6:28:18 PM PDT by Red Badger
A narrow-band image of the Sun at a wavelength of λ=588.9nm, that of a well known solar sodium line also known as the “NaD line.” The image was acquired during recent first light efforts with the VTF at the Inouye, and shows how precisely the structures within a sunspot are resolved. Each pixel in the original version of the image corresponds to 10 km (or 6.2 miles) on the Sun. (Credit: VTF/KIS/NSF/NSO/AURA)
***********************************************************************
In a nutshell
* The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope’s new Visible Tunable Filter (VTF) instrument has achieved “first light,” capturing detailed images of sunspots at an unprecedented 10km resolution.
* This revolutionary instrument measures specific wavelengths and light polarization to reveal the Sun’s magnetic fields, which are key to understanding and predicting dangerous solar storms.
* When fully operational, the VTF could help scientists forecast solar eruptions that can damage Earth’s power grids, communications networks, and satellites, potentially saving billions in infrastructure damage.
*************************************************************************
MAUI — After years of development, researchers at the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii have fired up their newest tool, the Visible Tunable Filter (VTF), and captured its first images of our sun. This breakthrough gives scientists an unprecedented look at the invisible forces that drive dangerous solar eruptions.
“When powerful solar storms hit Earth, they impact critical infrastructure across the globe and in space. High-resolution observations of the sun are necessary to improve predictions of such damaging storms,” explains Dr. Carrie Black, program director for the NSF National Solar Observatory.
Most people rarely think about the Sun beyond checking the weather forecast, but our seemingly steady star regularly erupts with massive bursts of energy. When these solar storms hit Earth, they can knock out power grids, disrupt GPS navigation, and damage satellites, potentially causing billions in damage.
The World’s Most Powerful Solar Observatory
The Inouye Solar Telescope sits atop Hawaii’s Haleakalā volcano, where observational conditions are ideal. Its four-meter mirror (about 13 feet across) makes it the world’s largest instrument dedicated to studying our star.
Since 2022, it’s been capturing stunning images of the Sun that reveal features as small as 20 kilometers across – remarkable considering the Sun spans 1.4 million kilometers. The newly captured images from the VTF show sunspots with details down to just 10 kilometers per pixel.
“The significance of the technological achievement is such that one could easily argue the VTF is the Inouye Solar Telescope’s heart, and it is finally beating at its forever place,” says Dr. Matthias Schubert, VTF Project Scientist at the Leibniz Institute for Solar Physics (KIS), in a statement.
The Visible Tunable Filter’s (VTF) etalon, pictured here, consists of two reflecting plates, employed for measuring small differences in the flux of light for different wavelengths using the interference it produces. The size of the etalon, and its extreme high surface quality, are unique and unprecedented. The VTF was designed and built by the Institut für Sonnenphysik (KIS) in Freiburg, Germany, and has now been integrated into the Inouye Solar Telescope in Maui, HI – where it recently successfully saw first light. (Credit: KIS)
************************************************************************
How It Works: Seeing the Invisible
The VTF weighs 5.6 tons and spans two floors — about the size of a small garage. Scientists at Germany’s Institute for Solar Physics spent about 15 years developing it, working in parallel with the telescope’s own construction.
The VTF functions as a specialized camera that can isolate specific colors of light coming from the Sun. While we see sunlight as white, it’s actually composed of countless individual wavelengths, each carrying unique information about solar conditions.
The instrument uses an etalon — a pair of precisely spaced glass plates separated by tens of microns — that allows it to tune through colors. By adjusting this spacing at the nanometer scale (i.e., as tiny as a billionth of a meter), the VTF sequentially scans different wavelengths, similar to taking a series of photographs using different color filters.
The VTF also measures how light waves oscillate, revealing the Sun’s magnetic fields – the driving force behind eruptions that can affect Earth. These capabilities allow researchers to measure the Sun’s temperature, pressure, velocity, and magnetic field strength at different altitudes in the solar atmosphere.
Protecting Earth From Solar Tantrums
The Sun is a plasma laboratory right on our doorstep. Everyone is familiar with aurorae, for instance, which show the influence of solar activity on Earth — a consequence of energy and small particles released by the Sun interacting with our planet’s magnetic field. Similar to weather forecasts on Earth, it should be possible to predict the geomagnetic disturbances caused by energy eruptions on the Sun.
The instrument peers into regions of the Sun where eruptions begin, the visible surface (photosphere) and the layer just above it (chromosphere). Here, hot plasma interacts with magnetic fields in ways scientists are still working to understand.
Near the summit of Maui’s Haleakalā, the NSF Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope – and its set of cutting-edge solar instruments, such as the Visible Tunable Filter – is set to pave the way for a deeper understanding of our home star. (Credit: NSF/NSO/AURA)
*********************************************************************
The need for better predictions grows more urgent as our dependence on technology increases. In 1989, a solar storm caused a nine-hour blackout in Quebec. Today, with our reliance on satellites, GPS, and interconnected power systems, a similar event could cause far more extensive disruption.
“The Inouye Solar Telescope was designed to study the underlying physics of the Sun as the driver of space weather. In pursuing this goal, the Inouye is an ideal platform for an unprecedented and pioneering instrument like the VTF,” said Christoph Keller, NSO Director.
“After all these years of work, VTF is a great success for me,” said Dr. Thomas Kentischer, KIS Co-Principal Investigator and key architect behind the instrument’s optical design. “I hope this instrument will become a powerful tool for scientists to answer outstanding questions on solar physics.”
NSO and KIS engineers and scientists work on the Visible Tunable Filter (VTF) inside the Coudé Lab at the Inouye Solar Telescope, preparing the instrument for its first light. The VTF is early in its technical testing phase, and the early images it produced are impressive. The data is expected to improve with the arrival of the second etalon, after which the instrument will subsequently enter its commissioning phase. Eventually, during scientific operations, extensive data processing and resolution will realize its full potential. (Credit: NSF/NSO/AURA)
********************************************************************
While the first images show promising results, more work remains before the instrument is fully operational. Science verification and commissioning are expected to begin in 2026.
Upgrade. Looks like Van Gogh on acid.
A big burning ball of hydrogen.
Thank you for the compliment!
That looks like the sun for ever before.
The world's largest solar telescope has gained a powerful new "eye" that promises deeper views into the workings of our sun than ever before, scientists announced on Thursday (April 24).
The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, which eyes the sun from its perch atop a mountain on the Hawaiian island of Maui, has been sending home stunningly detailed views of the surface of our star. The observatory, which is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, is designed to scrutinize the solar atmosphere and the sun's magnetic field for tiny features that might reveal answers to some of the fundamental solar mysteries.
The telescope's already-sharp vision has now been boosted significantly thanks to a new instrument designed to maximize the information gleaned from the sun's light, scientists said on Thursday.
Seems like the specific info is typically not hard to find because "first light" is a telescope's date-of-birth sort of thing.
In any case, the announcement went out on 4/24.
For the meeting of many data points, I was reminded of verse 17 in Psalm 72, which as you know is the source text for the ancient tradition about the name Messianic name "Yinon":
16. May there be abundance of grain in the land, may it wave on the tops of the mountains; may its fruit be like Lebanon; and may the men of the city flourish like grass of the earth:
17. May his name endure for ever; may his name be continued as long as the sun; may men be blessed in him; may all nations call him happy:
Together with the name of the mountain, and the popularity of watching the Sun rise from there:
Early Hawaiians applied the name Haleakalā ("house of the sun") to the general mountain. Haleakalā is also the name of a peak on the southwestern edge of Kaupō Gap. In Hawaiian folklore, the depression (crater) at the summit of Haleakalā was home to the grandmother of the demigod Māui. According to the legend, Māui's grandmother helped him capture the sun and force it to slow its journey across the sky in order to lengthen the day.
may his name be continued as long as the sun
For those not aware, the peculiarity in the verse is that the "Yinon" (be continued) is written as ינין, but is read (and discussed) as Yinon [יִנּוֹן].
לִפְנֵי־שֶׁמֶשׁ יִנּוֹן [ינין] שְׁמוֹ is lifnei* shemesh Yinon shmo, "before the Sun, Yinon is his name."
*לִפְנֵי prep. in the presence of, before. [Lit.: ‘at the face of’, formed from pref. לְ◌ and c. st. of פָּנִים (= face, presence). cp. Akka. lappān (= before), which is the exact equivalent of לִפְנֵי. cp. also בִּפְנֵי, מִפְּנֵי, מִלִּפְנֵי.]
94. SEVEN THINGS CREATED BEFORE THE CREATION OF THE WORLDThis next article (about the letter nun and the "Yinon" verse) is timely (all eyes on Rome today and this past week) because it uses The Messiah at the Gates of Rome for its storyline backdrop:Seven things were created before the creation of the world. They are: the Torah, Repentance, Paradise, Gehenna, the Throne of Glory, the heavenly Temple, and the name of the Messiah. The Messiah's name was engraved on a precious stone on the altar of the heavenly Temple, as it is said. His name existed before the sun (Ps 72:17)...
LINK (pg. 74)
Fish --A story is told in the Talmud:1 Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi meets Elijah the Prophet and asks, “When will Moshiach come?”
>>>
Nun also means “kingship.” There is a verse in Psalms regarding Moshiach that states:16 “May his name (Yinon) endure forever, as long as the sun.” According to Rashi, Yinon refers to kingship. If we break the word “Yinon” into two—yud and nun—nun means kingship, and putting a yud before a word denotes continuity.17 Therefore, the name Yinon implies that the kingship of Moshiach will endure forever.
>>>
Then he will be Yinon (yud), which means fish that multiply rapidly and endure. Under Moshiach’s reign, the world will be fruitful and multiply.
>>>
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/137086/jewish/Nun.htm
A related [to Maui] ancient line-of-thought regarding the arrival of the Messiah is that
“Three things come unexpectedly to a person: Moshiach, a found object, and a scorpion.” – (Sanhedrin 97a)Maui --The Talmud (Sanhedrin) states: “Three things come unexpectedly: Moshiach, a ‘find’ (metzia), and a scorpion,” i.e., the Redemption will be as much of a surprise as finding a “metzia” or being stung by a scorpion...https://lawofmessiah.wordpress.com/2013/07/07/moshiach-a-find-and-a-scorpion/
In Hawaii, Scorpius is known as the demigod Maui's Fishhook.
"In either hemisphere, the best time to view the constellation is July and August, and it is at its highest point around 9 pm in mid-July, according to EarthSky."
https://www.space.com/16947-scorpius-constellation.html
(Seems like the specific info is typically not hard to find because "first light" is a telescope's date-of-birth sort of thing.)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.