serenely beautiful from 93 million miles
away the Sun is actually a violently
energetic system so complex the numerous
scientists like dr. Tom Duvall from
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center are
dedicating their careers to its study
working at the kid feat National
Observatory outside Tucson Arizona dr.
Duval and his colleagues use a variety
of telescopes in their research
this mcmath instrument on Kitt Peak is
the largest solar telescope in the world
an 81 inch mirror on its roof tracks the
sun's daily passage sending a beam down
the shaft extending 300 feet below
ground
the result is a unique high-resolution
image of the Sun about two-and-a-half
feet in diameter dr. Duval hopes to get
at the causes of solar activity by
determining what's going on in the sun's
interior his ultimate goal to predict
some of the phenomena associated with
solar activity that are troublesome to
us here on earth most of dr. Duval's
work is done in this 81 foot high solar
vacuum telescope again mirrors are used
to reflect an image of the Sun down into
the instruments control room here a
daily map of magnetic phenomena on the
sun's surface is produced nearly all
forms of solar activity from some spots
the flares create magnetic fields if
these disturbances are strong enough
Communications on earth can be disrupted
there may even be a relationship between
solar activity in earthly temperatures
at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center
in Huntsville Alabama Richard Hoover an
astrophysicist studies the Sun with
x-ray telescopes this mirror was part of
an instrument used on Skylab to produce
solar images today Hoover and scientists
from Stanford University are working
with the new generation of x-ray
telescopes and they're producing
phenomenally high resolution images
reveal in solar turbulence has never
seen before
launched in 1980 the 5,500 pounds solar
maximum spacecraft in Congress to
produce information about the center
since being repaired I NASA passed
around its instruments encroaching on
your door toc reports and seller max is
dead on the Sun when the shuttle lives
over in October 1990 it will carry its
cargo bay another spacecraft that will
take a president and look at the Sun
developed by NASA and the European Space
Agency Ulysses will fly over the solar
poles regions of the Sun which may hold
important clues about its nature Ulysses
five-year journey of exploration
together with ceramics and discoveries
being made by NASA scientists around the
country will greatly enhance our
understanding of the beast behind the
beauty
you