This crisp view of a sunspot, captured by New Jersey Institute of Technology’s New Solar Telescope and released in August, may be the most detailed picture of its kind yet shot in visible light, astronomers say.
The 5.25-foot (1.6-meter) telescope, which became operational in 2009, sits at the school’s Big Bear Solar Observatory in the San Bernardino Mountains of California. The device uses a special deformable mirror—part of what’s called an adaptive optics system—to compensate for atmospheric distortions and produce ground-based images with about the same clarity as shots from orbiting observatories, experts say.
See more pictures from the Big Bear Solar Observatory in the gallery “New Sunspot Pictures: Sharpest View Yet in Visible Light.”
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