Sharpest-Ever Image of the Sun Shows Small but Mighty Swirls
These tiny instabilities could play an outsized role in energizing the Sun’s corona.
Scientists have captured the sharpest ever image of the Sun, revealing small swirls using the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii. Located in the world's largest solar telescope, this image zooms in on a small patch of the Sun's surface in visible light, covering just 0.0004% of its surface. Each pixel is 19 kilometers (11.8 miles) per side.
The image shows swirling plasma, known as Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities, with tiny twirls that suggest these instabilities might be common on the Sun's surface. The swirls are a result of a physical process that plays a crucial role in how the Sun's plasma bubbles and bursts. David Kuridze, a plasma researcher at the National Solar Observatory, and Friedrich Wöger, who studies flow dynamics of the solar photosphere, were not looking for these instabilities but stumbled upon them while aiming to reach the diffraction limit of the telescope. These instabilities might be prevalent across the Sun's surface.
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