September 4, 2022: Ring of telescopes aimed at Sun on Tibetan Plateau to study the Coronal Mass Ejections. What is CME? Why do we need to study them? A ReferencePepper
China has been moving at a staggering pace when it comes to space exploration and is targeting not just Mars, but asteroids and distant planets in the future. But, before all that, Beijing is geared up to introduce the world to the largest circular radio telescope array that will be aimed at the Sun.
The construction of the Daocheng Solar Radio Telescope (DSRT) on the Tibetan Plateau is going ahead at full steam and once complete, it will be a network of 313 dishes spanning six meters wide that will study the sun in detail, going deeper into the mechanisms that cause the Coronal Mass Ejections.
According to a report in the South China Morning Post the telescope will be used to study CME1s and understand the phenomenon when magnetized plasma escapes from the sun’s upper atmosphere and propagates in space.
Coronal Mass Ejection (CME1) comes right after a star throws out a flare or a sudden and bright burst of radiation that can extend far out into space.
A coronal mass ejection is one of the biggest eruptions from the Sun's atmosphere (Corona) that can contain a billion tons of matter accelerated to several million miles per hour into space. Corona is the outermost part of the Sun's atmosphere.
CMEs travel at a slower pace compared to the Solar flares.
Picture source: wikipedia.
Coronal mass ejections are usually visible in white-light coronagraphs. Here, the white circle represents the size of the Sun.
SOHO (ESA & NASA) - https://soho.nascom.nasa.gov/data/Theater/
On 27 February 2000, a large coronal mass ejection erupted presenting a typical "light bulb" shape. Courtesy of SOHO/LASCO consortium. SOHO is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.
CMEs travel at a slower pace compared to the Solar flares.
A solar flare is an intense localized eruption of electromagnetic radiation in the Sun's atmosphere which reaches the earth in about 8 minutes.
Picture courtesy: https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasa-releases-images-of-mid-level-solar-flare/
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare on Oct. 2, 2014. The solar flare is the bright flash of light on the right limb of the sun. A burst of solar material erupting out into space can be seen just below it.
Image Credit: NASA/SDO
When at their highest speeds of almost 1,900 miles per second (3,000 kilometers per second), CMEs can reach Earth in about 15 to 18 hours whilst slower CMEs traveling around 155 mi/s (250 km/s) can take upto several days to reach Earth.
The Astronomers get more time to prepare and study CMEs due to their relatively slower travel time.
The reason we are concerned about CMEs and discussing the need of preparation of their arrival and further study is that they are capable of creating havoc with telecommunication networks, orbiting manmade satellites, power grids at earth and can expose astronauts to dangerous levels of harmful radiation.
But then, CMEs are Skywatchers delight for their beautiful aurora displays.
Picture credit: NASA
The radio telescope will have a circumference of 3.14 kilometers as it images the Sun in radio waves and observes not just large eruptions, but also the changing activity of the star in our solar system.
The Chinese Meridian Project also includes the Mingantu interplanetary scintillation telescope, which is being assessed in Inner Mongolia. The facility will have 100 dishes in a three-arm spiral arrangement, which according to space.com, will study the sun in a wider band of frequencies than DSRT.
Wu Junwei from the National Space Science Centre, who is supervising the project told China News Service, "The DSRT will be the world's largest circular array for solar radio imaging, and enable more accurate observation of coronal mass ejections."
The observatory is being developed as part of the astronomy and archaeology park in Daocheng, which is estimated at 7 billion yuan ($1.04 billion). The DSRT will therefore remain open to the public. The development is being led by the National Space Science Center (NSSC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.