Adaptive Optics Take Clearest Pictures of the Sun Yet
1 min read
Summary
An updated telescope located at the Goode Solar Telescope in California now has the ability to see better than ever before, after updating its adaptive optics system.
By making rapid, slight adjustments to the telescope’s mirror, the atmospheric distortion of incoming light can be mitigated, thus improving the image quality.
Through the use of the latest adaptive optics, the resolution of the telescope has decreased from 1000km to 63km, closer to the theoretical limit.
This improvement in quality should shed light on some of the ongoing mysteries held by scientists about the sun.
Adaptive optics aren’t just used on terrestrial telescopes, as demonstrated by the James Webb Space Telescope, though it is the first to use the technology in space to observe the infrared.
