14 DAY TRIAL // A new telescope is under construction on the island of Maui in Hawaii and astronomers cannot wait for it to be completed. This is because, when up and running, this machinery will give us the absolute best images of the Sun we can hope for, given today's technology.
Mind you, there is more to this project than simply spending a heck lot of money on some machinery that promises to deliver seriously cool pictures of our parent star. Otherwise put, it's not entertainment what the scientists building the telescope are after.
Thus, it is understood that, when completed and operational, this so-called Daniel K Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST, for short) will help researchers better their understanding of solar physics by allowing them to study the Sun's photosphere, chromosphere and corona in unprecedented detail.
Just how accurate will this telescope be?
As detailed by specialists with Queen's University Belfast in Ireland, who were entrusted with building the telescope's cameras, the machinery will be so accurate that, if asked to do so, it could examine a simple coin from about 100 kilometers (62 miles) away.
Then again, the Daniel K Inouye Solar Telescope does come with a price tag of $344 million (nearly €304 million), so it makes sense for it to be this precise. Let's face it, nobody would spend this much money on designing and building a telescope that could only sneak a peek across the street.
Why spend this much money on studying the Sun?
Here on Earth, we are all too familiar with the Sun. It rises in the east, it sets in the west, and while high up in the sky, it gives us just enough light to help us cut down on our electricity bills. What else is there to know about this star that sits at the core of our Solar System?
Well, the thing about the Sun is that our planet's climate depends on it. What's more, events like solar flares can easily mess up the technology-based communications we so heavily rely on in this day and age. Hence, the more we know about it, the easier it will be to predict how its activity will affect us.
“To understand solar activity we need to observe and model the physical processes in the solar atmosphere on their intrinsic spatial and temporal scales so that, among other questions, we can reliably forecast this activity in space,” researcher Mihalis Mathioudakis explains the importance of building this telescope.
