As the construction of the world's largest solar telescope - named after Daniel K. Inouye, a US Senator for Hawaii - concludes, more and more features of the powerful scientific facility have become available for research.
"These are the highest-resolution images and movies of the solar surface ever taken [...] Up to now, we've just seen the tip of the iceberg", Inouye director Thomas Rimmele said, cited by Space.com
The NSF's Inouye Solar Telescope provides unprecedented close-ups of the sun’s surface, but ultimately it will measure the sun’s corona – no total solar eclipse required. 😎
— National Science Foundation (@NSF) January 29, 2020
More: https://t.co/UsOrXJHaY1 #SolarVision2020 pic.twitter.com/DO0vf9ZzKC
The cutting-edge telescope reportedly captured the jaw-dropping footage in December 2019 but its imagery was revealed only recently as the Hawaiian observatory is not completed yet.
The Visible Broadband Imager (VBI) was operational at that time as the only currently operational tool in telescope's arsenal, the media report said. The VBI is currently capable of making extremely high-resolution images of the solar surface and lower atmosphere.
