[News Today] SOLAR CORONAGRAPH TO BE LAUNCHED

[LEAD]
Whether on clear nights or bright days, we often look up at the sky. But how much do you actually know about the sun? The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute and NASA have completed a coronagraph to explore its secrets. They plan to launch it to the International Space Station this October.

[REPORT]
A total solar eclipse observed in the United States in 2017.

At the time the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute and NASA measured from the ground the temperature and speed of the ions discharged from the solar corona.

Based on their findings, the two institutions started making a coronagraph, a telescope designed to observe the sun.

In 2019, a large balloon loaded with the coronagraph succeeded in simultaneously measuring the corona's temperature and speed at the altitude of 40 kilometers above ground.

Jeffrey Newmark/ NASA CODEX Principle Investigator

The coronagraph jointly developed by Korean and American scientists will be attached to the International Space Station in October and monitor the solar corona for as long as two years.

This project will explore why the temperature of the solar corona goes up to five million degrees while the sun's surface temperature is only about 6,000 degrees and why the solar wind, which registers under tens of kilometers per second, accelerates to hundreds of kilometers per second by the time it reaches Earth.

Kim Yeon-han/ Senior Researcher, KASI
If we can use more reliable data from direct observation, we can boost
the reliability of solar storm predictions.

The solar coronagraph co-developed by the Korean and American researchers may be able to solve the long-standing mysteries of the sun.