NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array has captured its first image of the sun. NuSTAR is the largest Xray telescope with the highest power and has produced the most sensitive ever solar portrait using high-energy radiation Xrays. The image of NuSTAR is placed over another photo by Solar Dynamics Observatory.
NASA states that green shows energies of between 2 to 3 kiloelectron Volts and blue, energies of between 3 and 5 Kiloelectron Volts. High-energy Xrays are produced by gas that has been heated above 3,000,000 degrees. SDO captures ultraviolet light at wavelengths of 171 anstroms.
The red channel shows lower-temperature material at one million degrees. David Smith from University of California Santa Cruz, who is a solar physicist, said that NuSTAR would give them a unique view of the sun. Other telescopes, like NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, cannot capture the sun because it is too bright. NuSTAR can look directly at the sun without causing damage to its detectors. The NuSTAR solar image shows how the telescope is capable of collecting data on sun.
This information can help answer questions about high temperatures just above sunspots, which are cool dark spots in the sun. NuSTAR, a Small Explorer mission that Caltech is leading, was managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Washington for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. Orbital Sciences Corporation built the spacecraft. NASA Video – Holiday Lights on the Sun NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the image. This observatory monitors the sun continuously. The solar flares can be powerful radiation bursts.
