Behold, these magnificent and slightly creepy new hi-res images of the Sun, captured by Europe’s largest solar telescope, Gregor.
Isn’t it nice knowing that the giant ball of hot plasma that is single-handedly facilitating all life on Earth mildly resembles a big hungry butt-hole?
I guess when you are very literally the star of the Solar System, this slightly uncanny resemblance probably doesn’t worry you too much. Butt jokes aside, Europe’s largest solar telescope has well and truly delivered the goods, offering up some new hi-res images of our fiery friend, the Sun.
The telescope – named GREGOR – recently received some upgrades by a team of scientists at the Leibniz Institute for Solar Physics (KIS) in Germany. Now, old mate has the ability to capture details as tiny as 50 kilometres on the Sun’s surface, allowing for some of the highest-resolution observations ever made.
“This was a very exciting, but also extremely challenging project. In only one year we completely redesigned the optics, mechanics, and electronics to achieve the best possible image quality,” project leader Dr Lucia Kleint described in an accompanying statement.
Sunspots at the highest resolution ever recorded ( GREGOR Telescope) pic.twitter.com/hH8zlevsQT
— Domenico (@AvatarDomy) September 3, 2020
The statement likens the quality of the newly upgraded telescope to if you were 1 kilometre away from a soccer field and happened to notice a needle in “perfectly sharp” clarity. Now that’s 20/20 vision.
The images also capture sunspots close up, which is where the levels of creepiness seem to rise exponentially. Just remember, wherever you are, whatever kind of day you’re having, this thing is always looking down on you.
You’re welcome.
