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Nov.
2 , 2006: Get ready for some fantastic images of
the Sun.
The
Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) onboard Japan's Hinode spacecraft
has opened its doors and started snapping pictures. Shown
below is a "first light" image taken Oct. 23rd.
The light and dark blobs are solar granules, masses of hot
gas that rise and fall like water boiling atop a hot stove.
Each granule is about the size of a terrestrial continent.
SOT has no trouble seeing such detail from Earth-orbit 93
million miles away.
Above: A first light image from Hinode's
optical telescope. [More]
"We
have confirmed that SOT is achieving a very high angular resolution
of 0.2 arcseconds, a primary objective of the instrument,"
says the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in a
statement released Oct. 31st. One arcsecond is an angle
equal to 1/3600 of a degree—or approximately the width of
a human hair held thirty feet away.
Hinode
(Japanese for Sunrise, formerly known as Solar B)
was launched on Sept 22nd from the Uchinoura Space Center
in Kyushu, Japan. "It's on a mission to study the sun—specifically
sunspots, which give rise to powerful flares and solar storms,"
says John Davis, the NASA Solar-B project scientist at NASA's
Marshall Space Flight Center. Astronomers have been studying
sunspots since the days of Galileo four hundred years ago,
but they still don't know how to predict flares. Data from
Hinode may solve the mystery.
Hinode
carries three advanced space telescopes:
The
Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) provides crystal-clear
images of features on the sun's surface. A vector magnetograph
attached to the SOT will be able to trace sunspot magnetic
fields, which harbor energy for explosive flares. (Engineers
are still bringing the vector magnetograph online.)
The
X-ray telescope (XRT) can see million-degree gas
caught in the magnetic grip of sunspots and, higher up, floating
in the sun's atmosphere, the corona. For reasons no one understands,
the sun's corona is much hotter than the sun's surface—another
mystery Hinode may help solve. First light for the XRT was
achieved on Oct 25th: image.
The
Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer (EIS) is
a device that can tune into specific spectral lines emitted
by ions in the sun's atmosphere. By watching these lines shift
back and forth (the Doppler Shift), astronomers can keep track
of solar material as it moves around. Dynamic movies from
the EIS will not only entertain, but also provide crucial
clues to solve the dual mystery of flares and coronal heating.
First light for the EIS was obtained on October 28th: image.
Above: First light image from Hinode's X-ray
telescope. [More]
During
the month ahead, mission controllers and scientists will "progress
from testing the basic operation of these telescopes to implementing
full scientific operations," according to JAXA. In December
2006 "we intend to release a summary of initial scientific
findings obtained from the test images." And then the
regular flow of fantastic images will commence.
Stay
tuned to Science@NASA for updates from Hinode.
Hinode
is a joint mission of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
(JAXA), the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ),
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and
the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC).
The
Marshall Space Flight Center managed the NASA instrument component
integration for NASA Headquarters, is managing the science
operations for NASA and is also supporting science operations
in Japan.
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Author: Dr. Tony
Phillips | Editor:
Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA
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