An apparatus of such a small size has never been put into orbit
The first Russian space telescope in 14 years to observe the Sun was sent into space by scientists from the Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences in partnership with Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The SOL, as the telescope is called, is the smallest telescope in the world, weighing less than two kilograms. Recently, scientists have established two-way communication with the satellite on which the telescope is located, and are preparing for a full-fledged launch of the scientific program. We talked about it with one of the project leaders, Chief Researcher of IKI RAS Sergey Bogachev.
SOL Telescope. Photo: IKI and ISTP SB RAS
The previous Russian apparatus that observed the Sun – «Coronas-Photon» – stopped working in 2009 year. On it, according to Bogachev, was the best solar telescope in the world, but, unfortunately, due to the short work of the satellite itself, it had a chance to work less than a year. Since then, for 14 years, Russian scientists have been using the data of foreign devices «observing» behind our star.
The Russian telescope SOL, which successfully passed ground tests, was placed on the NORBI-2 nanosatellite and launched into space on June 27, 2023 from the Vostochny Cosmodrome together with the Meteor satellite. No. 2-3. Mass of NORBI-2 — less than 10 kg, of which the mass of the SOL telescope is less than two kg. In addition to ISTP SB RAS and IKI RAS, employees of the Novosibirsk State University and the Institute of Physics of Microstructures of the Russian Academy of Sciences worked on the creation of a nanosatellite and a telescope.
– To date, we have determined the position of the satellite in orbit and have begun to receive response telemetry, two-way communication with it has been established, – says Bogachev. – If everything continues to go according to plan, then in 10 days we will be able to turn on our instrument, try to aim at the Sun and get the first pictures.
– What information about the Sun will we receive from it?
– It will help us to register radiation from the Sun's corona and solar flares that cannot be seen from Earth. Of course, we also do not refuse data from foreign devices, such as the American SDO observatory, – The quality of images obtained from large devices is incomparable with the data of small telescopes. But if we are suddenly denied access to foreign data, the quality of our telescope will be enough to see solar flares.
A year later, around the summer of 2024, we are generally waiting for the solar maximum, during which our apparatus, which observes numerous events in the world, it will help us a lot. The optics of the SOL telescope will make it possible to distinguish details on the Sun with a size of about 2 thousand kilometers. This will allow detection of outbreaks from class C and above, up to the highest level – X.