Image courtesy of NASA/JPL

Do NOT Stare at the Sun, Unless…
| published July 8, 2015 |

By Thursday Review staff

NASA’s NuStar telescope has some remarkable abilities not found in the traditional tools for looking into deep space. For one NuStar (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array) can stare safely at the sun, without damage to electronics or optical hardware, and without the harm to our Earth-bound eyes that our mothers’ warned us about when we were kids.

This photo of the sun was taken on April 29, 2015, when flares and solar activity reached a climax. This image is actually a carefully composed composite of images captured by NuStar, as well as by low-energy X-rays from Japan’s Hinode spacecraft and ultra-violet light from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. Using computers, all three sets of images were melded to create this spectacular photograph of the sun during one of its peaks of flare and storm activity.

According to NASA, the NuStar telescope also has the ability to look beyond our solar system, and much deeper into space, giving it the remarkable strength to study supernovas, black holes, and what NASA calls “other extreme objects.”

Related Thursday Review articles:

The Lonely Galaxy; Thursday Review staff; Thursday Review; June 16, 2015.

Saturn’s Outward Calm; Thursday Review staff; Thursday Review; May 18, 2015.