JAPAN: Scientists take the first close up look of the sun's surface in details
- 00:00:20
- ITN Source
JAPAN: Scientists take the first close up look of the sun's surface in details
A group of Japanese scientists have successfully taken dramatic movies of the sun's surface in which dynamic eruptions above a sunspot can be seen. The national Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), a government funded entity which has played a leading role in the operation of a observational satellite "Hinode (Solar-B)", unveiled high resolution movies of the sun's surface which was filmed recently by Hinode. The movies, all of which were pseudo-coloured for original film were black and white, clearly show volcanic movements on the sun's surface when solar flare occurs in a magnetic field above a sunspot. The scientists involved claimed this is the world's first clear picture of eruption on the sun's surface. "We knew it can observe the sun clearer than any other scopes however I have never thought that we could see such high resolution images. So I am very amazed. I am very much looking forward to analysing individual magnetic fields on the sun's surface which had never been available to see before," said one of the researchers Suematsu Yoshinori. "We could successfully collect data about individual magnetic fields which could provide a clue to solve the mystery of eruption and temperature gaps," he added. The highly sophisticated observational satellite Hinode which was launched last September and is equipped with three advanced solar telescopes which could see an object up to as small as 50 centimetres (1.7 feet) if it observed the Earth. Earth's average distance from the sun is 150 million kilometres (93 million miles). It takes light eight and a half minutes to travel that distance. Temperatures at the surface of the sun averages around 5,700 Kelvin (5,500 degrees Celsius or 9,900 degrees Fahrenheit) though that is nothing compared to the average temperature of the outer surface of the sun which ranges from 100,000 Kelvin (99,000 degrees Celsius or 170,000 degrees Fahrenheit) around 1 million Kelvin (nearly 1 million degrees Celsius or 1.7 million degrees Fahrenheit). Why there is such a big drop in temperatures closer to the surface of the sun remains a mystery to science to this day. Temperature in sunspots however are cooler than the surrounding area and appear dark. Sunspots are magnetic regions, in which the strength of the magnetic field is thousands of times stronger than Earth's magnetic field. In surface area, the sun is nearly 12,000 times larger than the earth.
ITN Source | December 3, 2006
