Russia has begun construction of Eurasia’s largest coronagraphic solar telescope near Lake Baikal, located over 4,300 km east of Moscow, local media said on Saturday.
The foundation stone for the future telescope was laid on Saturday, the Russian news agency TASS reported. The project is the most complex and costly piece of equipment of the national solar observation system under development in Russia.
The project is headed by the Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics of the Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Buryatia, near the border with Mongolia, it added.
The telescope is designed to study the nature of magnetic fields and the solar activity cycle. Thanks to the telescope, researchers will be able to explore the fine structure of the photosphere, which is not visible to small-diameter telescopes and orbiting observatories.
The device will carry out spectral analysis and provide data on magnetic fields and the movement of matter. It will also help study the causes of solar flares and other phenomena.
The telescope will be established near the village of Mondy in Buryatia at a total cost of 36 billion rubles (345.6 million euros). It will be operational by 2030.