The paper has more details. What's interesting to me is that the key innovation isn't the deformable mirror but rather the design of a wavefront sensor that focuses on coronal features (instead of the "grain" on the solar surface prior systems used).
srean · 6h ago
With NSO (not NSO.edu but the cyberweapons/malware company) there is a hidden tenuous pun.
Adaptive optics started in a secret space weaponry research funded by SDI.
When a few profs independently proposed the idea in their NSF research grant proposal they were told - we already know this stuff.
You say beautiful, I say existentially terrifying, let’s split the difference
srean · 5h ago
There was this sci-fi story set on the sun. Humans interact with sentient plasma, some as old as the universe. Forgetting the name.
stevenwoo · 1h ago
Sundiver is most prominent in my recollection.
itishappy · 10h ago
I feel like the moment you learn the relative scales, it's over, there's no going back.
There's a billion WWII ending atom bombs going off every day up there. How are we still ok?
wffurr · 5h ago
My preferred design for fusion reactors uses gravitational confinement and are placed 150 million miles away.
doctorwho42 · 1h ago
Don't forget a vacuum or else you will cook and deafen yourself and everyone else
jajko · 2h ago
With enough distance, even largest hypernovae are just tiny sparkles on the background of the sky.
layer8 · 2h ago
We would be much worse off without it.
lazide · 5h ago
Hey, at least we can’t hear the screaming (/s).
Distance/dilution really is the solution eh? Besides, without all those fusion bombs going off our air would be liquid/solid, which is extremely inconvenient.
amelius · 5h ago
Soon coming to a fusion reactor near you.
ChuckMcM · 12h ago
Agreed, and for folks who can still remember some of Jackson's electrodynamics a really interesting visualization of field equations in "real" time.
For reference, the field of view here is about 2.5x the diameter of the Earth. Astronomical scales remain mind bending to me.
The paper has more details. What's interesting to me is that the key innovation isn't the deformable mirror but rather the design of a wavefront sensor that focuses on coronal features (instead of the "grain" on the solar surface prior systems used).
Adaptive optics started in a secret space weaponry research funded by SDI.
When a few profs independently proposed the idea in their NSF research grant proposal they were told - we already know this stuff.
https://www.npr.org/2013/06/24/190986008/for-sharpest-views-...
It's almost nice that mysteries remain - apparently, the physical mechanism behind solar spicules [1] remains "hotly" (!!) debated.
[1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_spicule
There's a billion WWII ending atom bombs going off every day up there. How are we still ok?
Distance/dilution really is the solution eh? Besides, without all those fusion bombs going off our air would be liquid/solid, which is extremely inconvenient.