A telescope has captured the visible surface of the Sun at the highest resolution ever reported, revealing microscopic swirling patterns for the first time and offering a far more complex picture of the solar surface than previously observed. The findings were published in the journal Nature.
The Sun's visible surface, known as the photosphere, is a thin layer of its atmosphere where hot plasma becomes transparent, allowing light to escape. Scientists have long known this region to be highly dynamic and complex, with factors such as magnetic fields shaping the structure of the solar atmosphere.
An international team of researchers used new images captured by the world's most powerful solar telescope, the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii, together with advanced computer simulations, to study a magnetically active region near a sunspot.
Magnetic energy
The ultra-high-resolution images revealed, for the first time, tiny swirling structures resembling miniature whirlpools on the Sun's surface. The features were observed along the boundaries of the granules that densely cover the photosphere.
The level of detail is comparable to being able to distinguish a one-euro coin from a distance of 180 kilometres.
The researchers attribute the newly observed structures to the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, a well-known fluid dynamics phenomenon in which wave-like patterns form when two fluids move alongside one another at different speeds. According to the study, this is the first confirmed observation of the phenomenon on the Sun's surface.
The team suggests the instability could help explain why the Sun's outer atmosphere becomes so intensely heated and how magnetic energy is transported and accumulated around the star. That magnetic energy powers solar flares and coronal eruptions, which can disrupt satellites, electricity grids and other technologies on Earth.
The US National Science Foundation's National Solar Observatory described the findings as a "groundbreaking discovery" in solar physics that could fundamentally change scientists' understanding of the physical processes driving solar activity and its effects on life on Earth.
Source: CNA
