r/spaceporn • u/Davicho77 • 17h ago
Sunspot as seen by the Vacuum Tower Telescope. Related Content
Credit: T.Rimmele (NSO), M.Hanna (NOAO) / AURA/NSF
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u/CFCYYZ 16h ago
The Vacuum Tower Telescope (VTT) is a solar telescope located at the Teide Observatory on the island of Tenerife, Spain. It is designed to observe the Sun with high precision and minimal atmospheric distortion. The telescope uses a vacuum tube to reduce air turbulence, allowing for clearer and more detailed images of the Sun's surface and its various phenomena, such as sunspots, solar flares, and prominences.
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u/DJOMaul 16h ago
I don't quite understand. Is the vaccum part only over the actual detector? I see that the primary mirror is adaptive, so does the furthur vaccum reduce the air turbulence from the detector heating up as it's powered on?
How is the detector kept cool?
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u/ThickTarget 12h ago
All the main mirrors are in vacuum. At the bottom of the tower is the primary mirror, the secondary is near the top. It has a very long focal length. As they are basically fixed there are two flat mirrors which are used to track the sun and direct light into the window of the vacuum chamber. Vacuum chambers are quite common on solar telescopes, it's to prevent the intense sunlight heating up the air inside the telescope.
https://science-media.org/userfiles/939/presentations/939_presentation_453.pdf
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u/darkreapertv 16h ago
Can someone explain whats happening here/ what causes a sunspot
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u/BilboSmashins 15h ago
Magnetic field concentrations. It causes disruptions in the normal flow of plasma, cooling it from 5,800 K to 3,800 K. In short it affects the underlying dynamics of plasma. The interior is known as the Umbra and the outer regions the Penumbra.
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u/RealQuickYes 11h ago
What would the cross section look like of this? Is it “flat” as compared to the rest of the surface of the sun? Or like a canyon? Uniform compared to the surrounding area?
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u/BilboSmashins 11h ago
That would be neat, but no; they’re not physically raised or depressed compared to the surrounding solar surface. It’s all part of the same continuous layer. No solar surface pimple.
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u/remote_001 9h ago edited 9h ago
The way it appears, it looks like the opposite, as if there is some unknown invisible reaction that is ejecting from the Umbra powerful enough to dived the Penumbra as it exits. Like some other form of ejection.
I believe your explanation, I’m just saying what I was thinking before I read your comment.
Basically, what if our assumption that dark means cool is really mistaking some other form of matter we are unfamiliar with.
Like look at the base of all of that plasma. It’s dark.
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u/BilboSmashins 8h ago
I can appreciate the outside the box thinking idea. The thought about unfamiliar matter or reactions though, it reminds me about how much there’s still to learn about the universe. I think what you’re seeing is an area where the magnetic fields are suppressing convection which in turn reduces the heat flow from the inside of the sun. Perhaps one day we will uncover more about our sun. Our little god as I like to call it.
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u/multigrain_panther 4h ago
Showerthought: sometimes it’s okay to point your telescope towards the sun
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u/csh0kie 1h ago
A SUNflower.
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u/TheSunflowerSeeds 1h ago
While sunflowers are thought to have originated in Mexico and Peru, they are one of the first plants to ever be cultivated in the United States. They have been used for more than 5,000 years by the Native Americans, who not only used the seeds as a food and an oil source, but also used the flowers, roots and stems for varied purposes including as a dye pigment. The Spanish explorers brought sunflowers back to Europe, and after being first grown in Spain, they were subsequently introduced to other neighboring countries. Currently, sunflower oil is one of the most popular oils in the world. Today, the leading commercial producers of sunflower seeds include the Russian Federation, Peru, Argentina, Spain, France and China.
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u/SaijTheKiwi 16h ago
Every one of those grainy convection cells is about the size of Earth.