Produced by: Manoj Kumar
After 15 years of preparation, the Visible Tunable Filtergraph (VTF) captured its first stunning images of the Sun from the world’s largest solar telescope in Hawaii.
Credit: VTF/KIS/NSF/NSO/AURA
VTF weighs 5.6 tons, spans two floors, and filters sunlight with world-unique Fabry-Pérot interferometers, delivering spectral accuracy down to a few picometers.
The VTF analyzes sunlight’s narrow wavelength bands and polarization states, mapping plasma flows, temperatures, and magnetic fields with 10 km/pixel resolution.
Credit: NSF/NSO/AURA
By peering into the photosphere and chromosphere, VTF helps scientists decode the solar plasma flows and magnetic twists that trigger powerful solar eruptions.
Insights from VTF could lead to better forecasts of solar storms that cause dazzling auroras — and potentially disrupt satellites, power grids, and communications.
The first VTF image shows a dark sunspot and finely detailed penumbra over a 25,000-kilometer solar surface patch, achieving breathtaking clarity never seen before.
Credit: VTF/KIS/NSF/NSO/AURA
VTF achieves hundreds of high-resolution images per second, enabling scientists to capture the Sun’s dynamic processes almost in real time with unprecedented detail.
Credit: NSF/NSO/AURA
Developed at the Institute for Solar Physics in Freiburg with help from MPS Göttingen, the VTF represents Germany’s major contribution to next-gen solar science.
Credit: KIS
VTF’s arrival marks a new era in ground-based solar observation, turning the Inouye Solar Telescope into a powerhouse for studying our star like never before.