One of the most powerful ultraviolet telescope products is the design of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. In July of 2003, Scientists got a chance to look closely at the sun, closer than we ever have before, thanks to the most powerful ultraviolet telescope. This telescope and its camera were launched into the sky aboard a sounding rocket. This powerful ultraviolet telescope revealed what we hadn't known about the sun before - that much activity is going on in the sun's chromosphere, which is its lowest layer of atmosphere. Pictures generated by this ultraviolet telescope will teach scientists how the sun works: i.e., how its corona, the outer atmosphere of the sun, heats to an incredible nearly two million Fahrenheit degrees (1 million+ degrees Celsius). This temperature is 100 times as hot as the sun's chromosphere. This powerful ultraviolet telescope is called VAULT, which stands for Very High Angular Resolution Ultraviolet Telescope. VAULT shoots photos of the upper chromosphere-emitted ultraviolet light. In 2002, on June 14th, this rocket propelled the ultraviolet telescope and took photos much clearer and better quality than anything ever captured before. Observations made as a result of the use of this powerful ultraviolet telescope teach us of a very structured, active upper chromosphere, and structures now finally visible. These structures often change from one image to the next - in as few as 17 seconds. These observations, made possible by the most powerful ultraviolet telescope, dispel the prior theory that it took five minutes for a solar structural change. |
