Sun-watchers hope giant telescope will get green light
Observatory would reveal structures that trigger sunspots and space weather.
Close and bright though it is, the Sun still defies a thorough understanding. One reason is that some of the features on its roiling surface are too small and short-lived to be studied even by the world’s largest solar telescopes.
That will change if the US National Solar Observatory (NSO) proceeds with its latest project — the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST), a Sun-gazing behemoth due to be built on the summit of Haleakala, the highest peak on the Hawaiian island of Maui. This month, an officially appointed arbiter will weigh the scientists’ goals against objections raised by conservationists and Native Hawaiian groups to decide whether the US$298-million project can break ground later this year.
With more than twice the aperture of existing solar telescopes (see ‘Eyes on the Sun’), the 4-metre ATST will be large enough to tease out small structures on the Sun, particularly magnetic flux tubes — the hitherto unseen precursors to sunspots. Sunspots, in turn, give rise to giant coronal loops and flares, which can unleash bursts of radiation and cause magnetic disturbances that sometimes threaten spacecraft, communication networks and power grids.
More at Nature News, h/t to Leif Svalgaard
More on ATST here.
Funny how we know it all about the Sun (when climate change is involved) unless we don’t (when a new ‘scope must be built) .
Funny also how “conservationists” are invariably against the betterment of humanity. Shadows of Mt Graham? Btw did those squirrels die for real?
Why Haleakala? Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea are both much higher.
Dotterels being vibrated in their nests by construction? – pulease!
White painted building on top of massive snow capped mountain insulting sacred site? – pulease!
I have been up to the observatory, and the objections seem very forced and tenuous to me
Environmentalists object to everything so ignore them. We do need to understand our nearest star and this will be a big leap forward.
Oh go on then Scientists, mention Climate Change in your ‘goals’ and you will find the environmental objections dissipate….. the photo needs a windmill.
Any science that starts with observations has got to be on the right track.
No brainer, let’s get the sun right, and everything else will follow.
Perish the thought that an environmentalist migtht actually learn something about the thing that powers all of it.
If the toast gets burnt don’t blame the bread.
What is point in looking at the Sun when everyone knows it is humanity to blame when it comes to global warming. It is little wonder the environmentalists are up in arms. We need to build temples to Gaia not science.
“Why Haleakala? Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea are both much higher.”
Probably a more desirable neighbourhood for support staff.
UK’s Met Office wakes up:
http://climaterealists.com/?id=8478
What better example that demonstrates that environmentalists hate science? Roll on Agenda 21, boy have they really got it in for the USA & it’s people!!!! 🙁
Why Haleakala? Maybe because it’s just 3,055 meters high – high enough for good observations but low enough that human crews can work uninterrupted there while testing out new complicated telescope designs (maintenance people at the higher sites – Mauna Kea, the Cerro Paranal in the case of ESA) are usually only allowed 30 minutes or so on the site; after they tend to forget their sonic screwdrivers.
BTW: Has anyone told “spiritually”-minded people that the best way to honor a so-called Sacred Place might to be set up an observatory? Looking out at the universe, widening our horizons, getting to know how the world actually works… (Sacrificing virgins is more fun, admittedly.)
Then again, you could of course Occupy Halekala. If an officer comes up and tells you to “more your ass, dude,” just answer: “You have just insulted my most sacred place”.
Do we really need to observe? can’t it just be modelled?
sarc off/
Had the environmentalists and other organizations dedicated to stopping progress along with the politicians and judges that enable them been around at the beginning of mankind the world’s human population would be very small and locked in the stone age, barely living beyond their teens. Fortunately they weren’t because they were too busy surviving.
$300 million (w/o cost overruns, what’re the odds of that) for a telescope in this economy?
Put it on hold. Spend the money on medical research or something more immediately productive. Or make it an international project with equal participation by everyone. I mean if there’s any practical benefit to be had like better warnings for CMEs (very doubtful IMO) then then every nation enjoys the benefits. I’m sick and tired of being the friggin’ scapegoat for all the problems in the world and while things we pay for, like this telescope, get ignored.
Obviously the Sun it is not cooperating with the renewable technologies program and they want to know why. 🙂
I am left to wonder, how a terrestrial based telescope, can provide better observations than the various space orbital observation telescopes/instruments currently in sol orbit? Perhaps someone else can explain this? GK
And there I was thinking that only USA political conservatives hated science.
Danny V. says:
October 13, 2011 at 5:03 am
“Why Haleakala? Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea are both much higher.”
Probably a more desirable neighbourhood for support staff.
You are close. Here is the site selection report:
http://atst.nso.edu/files/docs/RPT-0021.pdf
On a side note, I did not realize that Maui had a peak of just over 10k feet, and that it received snow.
Silly me thought that only the big island had that honor.
It’s very hard to build new observatories in Hawaii anymore. Look to Chile to become the astronomy capital of the world in the 21st century.
Prediction: solar research will be suppressed since it the threatens the left.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/10/13/high-hopes-for-the-advanced-technology-solar-telescope/#comment-766654
Cost, size, much shorter lifetime, and inexcessability.
http://atst.nso.edu/node/635
http://atst.nso.edu/node/563