How do scientists study the Sun ?

Question

cut the smart *** answers please

Answer 1

Telescopes of various types are used to study the sun. However, the sun emits so much energy across a broad specturm of wavelengths, especially the visible spectrum, that some kind of filtration is necessary.

The easiest type is white light filtration. This uses a filter that blocks out a large portion of visible light (around 99.9%) to allow scientists to view the photosphere of the sun. This is the "visible" layer of the sun, or it's surface so to speak. It is the area from which a vast majority of the energy is radiated. There is not much to see here other than some granulation and sunspots. Cooler areas like sunspots and areas convecting downward into the sun will appear darker.

Another way of studying the sun is in Hydrogen-alpha light. This requires a very special type of filter that filters out all but a very specific wavelength of red light. This type of light is emitted by the coolest area of the sun, the chromosphere. This is a layer that lies just above the aforementioned photosphere. The chromosphere is more dynamic than the photosphere when observed in this way. It also allows scientists to see prominences along the limb of the sun and can reveal solar flares as well.

High tech satellite telescopes like the ones in the SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) satellite have a variety of wavelengths they can observe, including a number of different UV wavelengths. These cannot be studied well on Earth's surface because our atmosphere filters out a good portion of the sun's UV rays. Pictures of these observations are usually in false color as we can obviously not see the UV light directly. Most pictures you usually see of the sun are false color UV images, but some are Hydrogen Alpha (Ha) images too.

A caronagraph is a camera that has a disc in the middle that blocks out the sun itself so that the camera can observe the sun's caronasphere. This is a very rarified "atmosphere" of the sun that is also extremely hot. It radiates light like the sun but because its density is so low, the sun's light itself tends to wash it out. The disc that blocks out the sun allows the camera to see the caronasphere. This won't work on Earth because the sun's light is scattered by our atmosphere and brightens the sky too much to see it. The one exception is during a total eclipse, when the moon blocks out the sun. Then the caronasphere can be seen with the naked eye.

Answer 2

I'd say the best answer to this question began on December 2, 1995.

The the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (a satellite) was launched then...and the most significant information contributing to solar study is being gathered as a result of it.

It orbits the sun, about 1,000,000 away from earth, in a synchronous orbit with the earth around the sun.

Check out the official website...

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/home.html

This is the primary tool used by scientists these days to study our sun. Of course they study other suns, and use many other satellites and telescopes...but none as much as the SOHO.

Answer 3

By means of the spectroscope much has been learned about the composition of the sun. There are numerous dark lines of varying widths in the solar spectrum.

The darkness of the lines in the sun's spectrum is attributed to the presence of a slightly cooler layer of gases above the photosphere, known as the reversing layer, which absorbs selectively the light of the photosphere and thus causes dark lines instead of bright ones to be observed through the spectroscope. By comparison of the sun's spectrum with laboratory spectra of incandescent elements, most of the elements known on earth have been identified in the sun's atmosphere.

Beyond the red portion of the visible solar spectrum is the infrared spectrum; for the study of these heat rays S. P. Langley invented the bolometer, a highly sensitive electrical device for measuring temperature. Solar heat and energy are measured by an instrument called the pyrheliometer. Other instruments devised especially for the study of the sun are the coronagraph and the spectroheliograph. These instruments have revealed a number of interesting phenomena occurring during the periods of solar activity associated with sunspots, e.g., faculae, plages (flocculi), prominences, and flares.

Answer 4

Projection imaging and direct digital imaging... the enormous bear image voltaic Observatory makes use of a sequence of mirrors to undertaking a picture of the image voltaic floor onto an excellent viewing table... i'm uncertain how a lot they use this for technological know-how as against excursions at present, yet viewing the sunlight in this style does no longer reason injury to the eyes... I incredibly have held image voltaic commentary events throughout the time of a pair of partial image voltaic eclipses in the previous 30 years... each and each time using the telescope that I had on the time projecting onto a cardboard floor suspended far adequate from the eyepiece to render a picture sufficiently enormous to work out the eclipse... This works properly for sunspot viewing besides... do no longer try this till you comprehend WHAT you're DOING... observing the sunlight via a telescope, even for a 2d, might reason everlasting injury to the attention...

Answer 5

Scientists use spectrography to study not just the Sun but all the stars; spectrography is a way of analyzing the light from the Sun (and other stars).
X-ray, ultraviolet, infrared and other specialized types of images are very helpful as well; specialized equipment both on Earth and in orbit around the Earth is used to take these pictures and analyze the Sun's light.

Answer 6

They have various methods. The first on is to look at it through a properly filtered telescope. They can also look at the light coming out of it and break it up into its spectrum this is called spectroscopy and it is used to tell what things are made of. There are many other ways, but I can't name them nor will I try.

Answer 7

There are certain satellites that continually monitor the sun as well as telescopes on Earth as well as in Space.

Answer 8

Radiation,Radio Waves,Special lenses on telescopes,Spectrometer.

Answer 9

They say a picture is worth a thousand words....

http://nsokp.nso.edu/

There are some other good answers, but having seen this place up close and personal, I thought I'd steer you in this direction.

Answer 10

with giant Telescopes and with the Hubble Telescope they can peer into the universe