From Atop a Mountain,A Deeper Look at the Sun

摘要

One morning in the ancient past, a Hawaiian legend says, the demigod Maui-after whom the island is named-stood atop the Haleakala shield volcano and lassoed the rising sun. He made the Sun promise to slow its journey, giving Maui's mother longer days to dry her tree-bark cloth. Today, astronomers are hoping to use the Haleakala summit for a more scientific tryst with the sun. Supported by funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), they plan to build the world's largest solar telescope there. The Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST) is proposed to be 43 meters high with a 4-meter-wide mirror that will help researchers image the sun's surface in unprecedented detail. Researchers hope that observations from ATST will confirm theoretical models about the sun and answer fundamental questions such as the origins of sunspots and solar flares. But as the project enters its final design stage, some fear that it may never see the light of day. Some local Hawaiians are campaigning to block construction of the observatory, arguing that ATST will ruin the grandeur of a mountaintop already cluttered with a half-dozen smaller telescopes. Meanwhile, a tough funding climate combined with a spiraling cost estimate poses a serious threat to the project.