This week, NASA scientists—using a far more advanced light capture system than Galileo's—observed a massive square-shaped dark spot on the surface of the sun. The spot looks eerily like a hole, but is actually just a large area where solar winds are shooting out at superfast speeds—also known as a "coronal hole."Oct 2, 2014
How does NASA take pictures of the Sun?
Those telescopes are very similar to the ones we use on the ground, but they have special filters that allow only this extreme ultraviolet light to get through. And then they have a CCD [an image sensor] where the pictures are taken.
How do we take images of the Sun?
How to photograph the Sun: the basics
- When photographing the Sun you will need to use a special solar filter.
- A large size lens or telescope can give good details and a tracking mount is helpful.
- The best time to photograph the Sun is early morning, before the atmosphere becomes heated and unstable.
What does NASA use to take pictures from outer space?
One of the most famous is the Hubble Telescope. The Hubble was designed as a long range telescope and placed in orbit around the Earth in order to get clearer photos without an atmosphere. It has long outlived the design specifications yet still delivers amazing views of galaxies and nebulae.
What lens do I need to take pictures of the Sun?
For really dramatic views, you'll need to use a narrowband filter that lets only a specific wavelength of light through, such as hydrogen-alpha or Calcium K. These filters are more expensive than white-light filters and can only be used for solar work.
How does Hubble telescope take pictures?
Hubble is not the kind of telescope that you look through with your eye. Hubble uses a digital camera. It takes pictures like a cell phone. Then Hubble uses radio waves to send the pictures through the air back to Earth.
How does Hubble telescope work?
The Hubble is a reflecting telescope. It gathers light emanating from celestial objects with its large 2.4-meter primary mirror, and reflects the light toward its secondary mirror. This mirror focuses the light onto scientific instruments like cameras and spectrographs.
How close has NASA gotten to the sun?
When NASA's Parker Solar Probe flew close by the sun, telescopes were watching from Earth and space. The spacecraft got close to 5 million miles from the sun's surface on Feb. 25.
Is the sun actually white?
The color of the sun is white. The sun emits all colors of the rainbow more or less evenly and in physics, we call this combination "white". That is why we can see so many different colors in the natural world under the illumination of sunlight.
How does Voyager send pictures back to Earth?
Spacecraft send information and pictures back to Earth using the Deep Space Network (DSN), a collection of big radio antennas. The antennas also receive details about where the spacecraft are and how they are doing. NASA also uses the DSN to send lists of instructions to the spacecraft.