Sunrise (telescope)

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Sunrise is a balloon-borne reflector telescope for solar observation . It has a lightweight Zerodur mirror system with an aperture of one meter. The 1.8 ton telescope was brought to a height of 36 kilometers with a helium balloon , which enables observations in the UV range unhindered by the atmosphere .

advantages

SUNRISE offers a number of advantages:

  • The Seeing is by observing height above turbulent practically air layers No
  • During the entire mission, solar observations can be carried out, as the sun does not set in these latitudes at this time of the year (see also midnight sun )
  • The polar winds provide free propulsion energy

Technical details

The telescope works diffraction-limited with an angular resolution of 0.05 arc seconds . The surface of the sun and the distribution of its magnetic fields are measured with a spatial resolution of 35 kilometers per pixel and a temporal resolution of 5 s. For this purpose, three simultaneously observing instruments (UV image sensor, magnetogram, polarization spectrometer) are on board. It is the largest solar telescope that has ever left the earth.

As with the Hubble space telescope, alignment in the desired direction is carried out using several reaction wheels . An inertia wheel then takes over the position stabilization.

mission

A first test drive in autumn 2007 was already successful. The first flight started at 8:27 am on June 8, 2009 from the Esrange space base in Kiruna , Sweden . In the following five days, the system was carried by polar winds across the North Atlantic and Greenland to northern Canada . The landing took place at 1:45 am on June 14, 2009 on Somerset Island in the Canadian province of Nunavut .

The second launch took place at 7.30 a.m. on June 12, 2013 from the Esrange space base in Kiruna, Sweden.

The third flight with three new instruments is planned for June 2022. The start is to take place again from Esrange.

Institutions involved

The mission is led by the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Göttingen .

Other participating institutes:

The SUNRISE project is funded by

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Sunrise" over the Arctic ice . Retrieved August 10, 2011.
  2. ↑ a b SUNRISE floats towards the sun. From: MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT press release , June 8, 2009. ISSN  0170-4656 .
  3. ^ Sunrise Science Blog . Retrieved February 18, 2011.
  4. ↑ ESTANGE website . Archived from the original on October 21, 2013. Retrieved October 21, 2013.
  5. ↑ [1]