Atacama Large Millimetre Array (ALMA) in Chile have revealed invisible details of our sun, including a new view of the dark, contorted center of a snapshot that is near twice the diameter of the Earth.

According to European Southern Observatory, the image is viewing the sun for the first time and documenting the area right above its visible surface. The images are important to document that can be used to probe the physics of our nearest star.

The Atacama Large Millimetre Array antennas had been carefully designed so they could image the sun without being damaged by the intense heat of the focused light.

SPACE has reported that the ALMA ground-based telescope is more usually used to probe radio waves released by some of the universe's most distant galaxies. The telescope has picked up waves released by the sun's chromospheres; the area is just above the surface of sun's visible light.

The astronomer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Virginia Tim Bastian has reported, the captured images can only tell us so much about the dynamic surface and energetic atmosphere of our nearest star.

To study entire sun the astronomers need the entire electromagnetic spectrum including the millimeter and sub-millimetre portion that ALMA can observe.

The antennas were specially designed to observe the fierce light of the sun. It is the first observatory with ESO as a partner that can investigate the sun.

The team observed an enormous sunspot at wavelengths of 1.25 millimeters and 3 millimeters using two of ALMA's receiver bands. The images reveal differences in temperature between parts of the Sun's chromospheres. The magnetic of the sun can also lead to solar flares and coronal mass ejections of the sun's material flying outward.

Astronomers have warned that the existing and past ESO facilities need to be protected from the intense solar radiation to avoid damage. The new ALMA capabilities will expand the ESO community to include solar astronomers.


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