Our scientists are part of an international team behind plans for Europe’s largest solar telescope – which has just reached a new milestone.
The European Solar Telescope (EST) has been granted ESFRI Landmark status by the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI).
Landmark status recognises EST’s progress towards construction, its scientific ambition, and its expected role within Europe’s research infrastructure landscape.
Our Centre for Advanced Instrumentation – part of our Department of Physics – will work on adaptive optics to correct the blurring effects of the Earth’s atmosphere.
High-resolution images from the EST will allow astronomers to understand the environment in and around the sun.
This will help them to better predict when dangerous solar flares may strike the Earth.
The EST’s images will also support the work of research groups across the University – such as the Magnetohydrodynamics Group in our Department of Mathematical Sciences – to refine their models of solar activity.
The EST will be built at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in La Palma, Spain.
Its 4.2-metre-class mirror and advanced instruments are designed to observe the solar atmosphere at multiple heights simultaneously and across different wavelengths.
This will allow researchers to follow the emergence and evolution of magnetic fields at the solar surface.
They will also investigate how energy is transported through the solar atmosphere.
These processes are fundamental to understanding solar activity, including the mechanisms that drive solar eruptions.
The sun is the only star whose surface and lower atmosphere can be observed in such detail, making it a unique laboratory for studying fundamental physical processes.
Discover more about Durham University’s Centre for Advanced Instrumentation and the EST.
Durham is part of the United Kingdom Universities Consortium (UKUC), led by the University of Sheffield, which supports and advances the EST as a member of the EST Foundation.
Our Department of Physics is ranked joint 67th in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2026 and fourth in the UK in the Complete University Guide 2027. Visit our Physics web pages for more information on our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.
Our Department of Mathematical Sciences is ranked eighth in the UK in the Complete University Guide 2027. Visit our Mathematical Sciences web pages for more information on our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.
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