Trump's 2026 budget cuts would force the world's most powerful solar telescope to close
ANCHORAGE, AK — There was a pindrop silence in the room on Tuesday (June 10), as Christoph Keller, director of the National Solar Observatory, spoke on stage here at the 246th American Astronomical Society meeting.
Standing in front of a giant projected bar graph, he solemnly explained the possible fate of the world's most powerful eye on the sun: the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST). If Congress enacts President Donald Trump's fiscal year 2026 budget request — allocating just $13 million or so for DKIST — the telescope won't be able to continue on, Keller said. For context, this year alone, the federally funded National Solar Observatory (NSO) expects to spend about $30 million on the facility.
"To put it bluntly," Keller said, "for DKIST, at $13 million, we cannot operate. There's no way for us to operate such a complex facility."
The graph behind Keller spoke for itself. On the left, a bar represented the actual money the NSO spent in 2024, one in the middle represented what the NSO plans to spend in 2025, and one on the right depicted Trump's FY26 budget request. Each individual bar was divided into two colors: one representing money required for DKIST (a strong majority of each bar) and one representing money required for all other NSO facilities.
"If you actually looked at what this means," Keller said. "Between this year and the request for next year, it's a 54% budget cut."
The hit to DKIST would be unfortunate, as scientists made clear during the talk, particularly seeing as the telescope only captured its first image in 2020 after over 25 years of effort. Not only is it the world's most powerful solar telescope, it's also the largest. Built with about 150 tons of steel, it sits atop the 10,000-foot-high (3,048-meter) summit of the volcanic mountain. Haleakalā, which translates to "the house of the sun," on the Hawaiian island of Maui.
"It's a really nice site," David Boboltz, associate director for DKIST, said during the meeting. "It's got low light scattering; it's got good seeing."
"It is literally the greatest leap in humanity's ability to study the sun from the ground since Galileo's time. It's a big deal," Jeff Kuhn, a professor at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa's Institute for Astronomy (IfA) who worked on DKIST, previously said in a statement.
Indeed, the details of our sun that DKIST is able to capture are astounding. In the image below, for instance (DKIST's first image of the sun), each cell-like structure is about the size of Texas. This is the highest-resolution image of our star that's ever been captured.
What's extra mind-blowing here is how small of a solar region the image actually represents:
Another more recent image from DKIST reveals what appear to be magnetic "curtains" on our star's surface, in reference to what are called "photospheric striations" shaped by the sun's magnetic field. In still another, an area above the sun's atmosphere looks like it has the texture of one of those rubber spike balls you can get at Chuck E. Cheese. The list goes on in terms of awesome DKIST data, and that's with only a few years of time online.
But DKIST wouldn't be the only at-risk NSO facility, as Keller explained. If Trump's FY26 budget proposal goes through, just $4 million would be available for all other NSO equipment. "We can maybe operate three ground stations," he said, suggesting this would eradicate all of helioseismology. There may only be some room for space weather forecasting initiatives, Keller said.
"If something goes wrong; if something really fails, we won't have the money to fix it," he added.
"Congress can fix it, and all citizens here, you know what to do."
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Bloomberg
2 minutes ago
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Trump, Putin Call Talks ‘Productive,' a ‘Starting Point'
US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin speak at a joint event Friday following their summit in Anchorage, Alaska. (With English translation of Putin's remarks in Russian.) (Source: Bloomberg)
CBS News
2 minutes ago
- CBS News
Here's the transcript of what Putin and Trump said in Alaska
President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin left Alaska Friday without a ceasefire agreement, although both men described the meeting constructive. In what was billed by the White House as a press conference following their meeting, Mr. Trump and Putin took no questions, ignoring shouted ones from reporters. Putin spoke little of Ukraine, focusing on the bond and heritage between the U.S. and Russia, while Mr. Trump said many points were agreed to, and a few are left, regarding Ukraine. The U.S. president plans to call European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, he said. Here is a transcript of what Mr. Trump and Putin said: PUTIN: Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, our negotiations have been held in a constructive atmosphere of mutual respect. PUTIN: We have very thorough negotiations that were quite useful. I would like to thank once again my American counterpart, for the proposal to travel out here to Alaska. It only makes sense that we've met here, because our countries, though separated by the oceans, are close neighbors. So when we've met, when I came out of the plane and I said, 'Good afternoon, dear neighbor. Very good to see you in good health and to see you alive.' I think that is very neighborly. I think that's some kind words that we can say to each other. We're separated by the strait of Bering, though, there are two islands only between the Russian Island and the U.S. Island. They're only four kilometers apart. We are close neighbors, and it's a fact. PUTIN: It's also important that Alaska has to do with our common heritage, common history between Russia and the U.S., and many positive events have to do with that territory. Still, there is tremendous cultural heritage, back from the Russian America, for example, Orthodox churches, and a lot of- more than 700 geographical names of Russian origin. During the Second World War, it was here in Alaska that was the origin of the legendary air bridge for the supply of military aircraft and other equipment under the Lend-Lease Program. PUTIN: It was a dangerous and treacherous route over the vast emptiness of ice. However, the pilots of both countries did everything to bring closer the victory. They risked their lives and they gave it all for the common victory. I was just in the city of Magadan in Russia. And there is a memorial there dedicated to the Russian, the U.S. pilots. And there are two flags, the U.S. flag and the Russian flag. And I know that here as well, there is such a memorial. There is a military burial place several kilometers away from here. The Soviet pilots are buried there who died during that dangerous mission. We're thankful to the citizens and the government of the U.S. for carefully taking care of their memory. I think that's very worthy and noble. We'll always remember other historical examples when our countries defeated common enemies together in the spirit of battle camaraderie and allyship that supported each other and facilitated each other. I am sure that this heritage will help us rebuild and foster mutually beneficial and equal ties at this new stage, even during the hardest conditions. PUTIN: It is known that there have been no summits between Russia and the U.S. for four years, and that's a long time. This time was very hard for bilateral relations, and let's be frank, they've fallen to the lowest point since the Cold War. I think that's not benefiting our countries and the world as a whole. It is apparent that sooner or later, we have to amend the situation to move on from the confrontation to dialog, and in this case, a personal meeting between the heads of state has been long overdue, naturally, under the condition of serious and painstaking work, and this work has been done. PUTIN: In general, me and President Trump have very good direct contact. We've spoken multiple times. We spoke frankly on the phone. And the special envoy of the president, Mr. Witkoff, traveled out to Russia several times. Our advisers and heads of foreign ministries kept in touch all the time, and we know fully well that one of the central issues was the situation around Ukraine. PUTIN: We see the strive of the administration and President Trump personally to help facilitate the resolution of the Ukrainian conflict, and his strive to get to the crux of the matter, to understand this history, is precious. As I've said, the situation in Ukraine has to do with fundamental threats to our security. Moreover, we've always considered the Ukrainian nation, and I've said it multiple times, a brotherly nation. How strange it may sound in these conditions. We have the same roots, and everything that's happening is a tragedy for us, and terrible wound. Therefore, the country is sincerely interested in putting an end to it. PUTIN: At the same time, we're convinced that in order to, to make the settlement lasting and long term, we need to eliminate all the primary roots, the primary causes of that conflict, and we've said it multiple times, to consider all legitimate concerns of Russia and to reinstate a just balance of security in Europe and in the world on the whole, and agree with President Trump, as he has said today, that naturally, the security of Ukraine should be ensured as well. Naturally, we are prepared to work on that. PUTIN: I would like to hope that the agreement that we've reached together will help us bring closer that goal and will pave the path towards peace in Ukraine. We expect that Kyiv and European capitals will perceive that constructively and that they won't throw a wrench in the works. They will not make any attempts to use some backroom dealings to conduct provocations to torpedo the nascent progress. PUTIN: Incidentally, when the new administration came to power, bilateral trade started to grow. It's still very symbolic. Still, we have a growth of 20%. As I've said, we have a lot of dimensions for joint work. It is clear that the U.S. and Russian investment and business cooperation has tremendous potential. Russia and the U.S. can offer each other so much in trade, digital, high tech and in space exploration. We see that arctic cooperation is also very possible, in our international context. For example, between the far east of Russia and the West Coast of the U.S. PUTIN: Overall, it's very important for our countries to turn the page to go back to cooperation. It is symbolic that, not far away from here, the border between Russia and the US, there was a so-called International Date Line. I think you can step over, literally, from yesterday into tomorrow, and I hope that's- will succeed in that, in the political sphere. I would like to thank President Trump for our joint work, for the well wishing and trustworthy tone of our conversation. PUTIN: It's important that both sides are result-oriented and we see that the president of the U.S. has a very clear idea of what he would like to achieve. He sincerely cares about the prosperity of his nation. Still, he understands that Russia has its own national interests. PUTIN: I expect that today's agreements will be the starting point, not only for the solution of the Ukrainian issue, but also will help us bring back business-like and pragmatic relations between Russia and the U.S. PUTIN: And in the end, I would like to add one more thing. I'd like to remind you that in 2022, during the last contact with the previous administration, I tried to convince my previous American colleague, it should not- the situation should not be brought to the point of no return, when it would come to hostilities and accept it quite directly back then, that is a big mistake. 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