Most detailed images taken of sun's surface revealed: "Major step forward"
Researchers were able to peek at the sun's scorching surface with the help of the National Science Foundation's Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, located on the island of Maui in Hawaii.
Scientists have captured the most detailed images ever taken of the sun's surface, revealing a highly dynamic and complex landscape. The National Science Foundation's Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, located on the Hawaiian island of Maui, was used to obtain these unprecedented images. The researchers were initially testing the telescope's capabilities when they noticed the extraordinary detail, showcasing the sun's outer shell at a higher resolution than previously achieved.
These pictures unveil strange, feathery patterns and swirling whirls near magnetic areas, resembling Van Gogh's Starry Night. These observations were made by looking at small-scale and dynamic ripples in the sun's surface, caused by moving magnetized plasma at different speeds—known as the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI). While this phenomenon has been observed on Earth and other planets, it had never been seen at this level on the solar surface before.
The discovery, published in the journal Nature, marks a significant step forward in understanding solar and stellar plasma dynamics, which will help scientists better predict and monitor space weather events like coronal mass ejections that can disrupt GPS communications and cause auroras.
Written by urgent.news from CBS News's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
