National Solar Observatory / AURA / National Science Foundation / Inouye Solar TelescopeOn December 12, 2019, the world's most powerful solar observatory — the National Science Foundation's Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope — opened its eyes for the first time. But the Inouye Solar Telescope offers so much more than just gorgeous images of our parent star; it's one of a number of solar astronomy projects that are all working together to protect our planet from a multi-trillion dollar disaster that's definitely coming: a catastrophic solar flare. But many solar flares will lead to coronal mass ejections, particularly if there's a solar prominence nearby. The Inouye Solar Telescope is precisely this amazing solar-measuring magnetometer that we need to make these observations. NSF/Aura/National Solar ObservatoryAlthough the largest solar flares are rare, they do occur with some regularity.

Source: Forbes January 31, 2020 06:56 UTC