High Resolution Coronal Imager
The High Resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C) is a sub-orbital telescope designed to take high-resolution images of the Sun's
Telescope description
The telescope weighs 464 pounds (210 kg), and is 10 feet (3.0 m) long.[3] The mirrors are approximately 9.5 inches (24 cm) across. Its optics were designed at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama with assistance from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and L-3Com/Tinsley Laboratories of Richmond, California. Dr. Jonathan Cirtain, from MSFC said: "These mirrors were to be the finest pieces of glass ever fabricated for solar astrophysics."[4]
Imaging system
The imaging system was designed by Apogee Imaging Systems with a resolution of 0.1 arcsec/pixel (14 times higher resolution than the Solar Dynamics Observatory). It was based on a customized version of the E2V CCD203 from Lockheed Martin, which is a very large 4 channel back illuminated 4,000 × 4,000 pixel charge-coupled device (CCD).[2]
Missions
The first flight lasted for 10 minutes, reached an altitude of 283 kilometres (176 mi) and the telescope captured 165 images of a large
On the second flight, in 2018, five and a half minutes (329 seconds) of pictures were taken of an area on the sun 4.4
Findings
The first mission revealed never-before-seen "magnetic braids" of plasma roiling in the Sun's outer layers.[3] It was the first time scientists were able to directly observe magnetic reconnection in braids, which may be the primary sources of heating in the active solar corona.[5][7]
References
- .
- ^ a b "NASA HIC". Apogee Imaging Systems. Retrieved February 9, 2013.
- ^ a b c "NASA Telescope Observes How Sun Stores and Releases Energy". NASA. January 23, 2013. Retrieved January 24, 2013.
- ^ "'Hi-C' Mission Sees Energy in the Sun's Corona". NASA. January 23, 2013. Retrieved January 24, 2013.
- ^ a b "High-Resolution Coronal Imager Photographs the Sun in UV Light at 19.3nm Wavelength". AZonano.com. January 24, 2013. Retrieved February 9, 2013.
- ^ Clara Moskowitz (January 23, 2013). "How NASA Revealed Sun's Hottest Secret in 5-Minute Spaceflight". Space.com. Retrieved January 24, 2013.
- S2CID 205232074.