Solar-B

Image above: Taken by Hinode's Solar Optical Telescope on Nov. 20, 2006, this image reveals the structure of the solar magnetic field rising vertically from a sunspot.
Image credit: Hinode JAXA/NASA


The latest addition to exploring the Sun, introduction here.
It's called Hinode(formerly Solar-B), Japanese for Sun, It's a joint venture between Japan, UK and USA scientists. It became operational fall 2006 and is now doing science.

The Hinode (Solar-B) is a highly sophisticated observational satellite equipped with three advanced solar telescopes. It was launched on 22 September 2006 UT (23 September in Japan time). Its solar optical telescope (SOT) has an unprecedented 0.2 arcsec resolution for the observation of solar magnetic fields. It would resolve a feature with the size of 50cm, if it observed the Earth. The X-ray telescope (XRT) has a resolution of three times as high as Yohkoh, and the EUV imaging spectrometer (EIS) has sensitivity ten times as high as the ESA SOHO instrument. These X-ray and EUV telescopes would reveal the heating mechanism and dynamics of the active solar corona.

With this suite of telescopes, we can address the following key questions in solar physics : Why does a hot corona exist above the cool atmosphere? What drives explosive events such as solar flares? What creates the Sun's magnetic fields?

The Hinode (Solar-B) project office at NAOJ plays a lead role in instrument design and development, mission operation and data analysis with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and promotes international collaboration with the US and European partners.



Consider this, it wasn't until the mid 19th century that man understood that the sun was just an ordinary star, one of billions in the galaxy.

2007 is the predicted solar minimum for sunspots.