Scientists have captured the surface of our Sun in a new and unprecedented level of detail using the most powerful solar telescope in the world.
The photos and videos show “swirls” of activity that have not been seen until now.
This is the Sun's magnetic field that twists and shifts due to the movement of hot gas.
That constant swirling motion is the driving force behind the Sun's bursts of energy, which create so-called space weather, which can disrupt Earth's power grids and satellites, and could even injure astronauts.
“The Sun is the source of that energy and all that space weather,” explained David Boboltz, of the United States National Solar Observatory (NSO).
The expert explained that capturing more detailed images of the star in our solar system will help respond to this climate.
“To understand and ultimately predict space weather, we need to understand the physics of the Sun, even at the smallest scales.”
The findings, published in the journal Nature, were made possible by the Inouye solar telescope, built on a high mountain in Hawaii, where the clear blue skies are free of dust.
Approaching the Sun's surface, the team captured a detailed view of the spinning vortices.
“These twisting movements are creating magnetic energy, which can build up to produce these large-scale explosions,” David Kuridze, an NSO astronomer, told the BBC.
Explosive space weather
The term scientists have used to describe the discovery they have made on the Sun is “Kelvin-Helmholtz instability.”
This phenomenon occurs when fluids—in this case, hot gases—slide over each other, causing small disturbances to become spiral vortices.
In the ocean, it helps explain how ripples transform into giant, powerful waves.
Friedrich Woeger, also from the NSO, explained that finding it on the surface of the Sun not only explained the dynamics of space weather, but even why the surface of the Sun is so hot.
The phenomenon shows how energy is transported upwards.
“Once enough energy builds up in the upper layers, it can be released in the form of a flare, known as coronal mass ejection,” he noted.
Boboltz added that, in addition to the practical need to understand and protect ourselves from space weather, the new findings remind us that the Sun is a "unique laboratory."
“It's our closest star,” he said. “And it can help us understand some very basic laws of physics.”
“The first experimental proof of Einstein's general relativity came from observations of solar eclipses, (…) so, simply for the sake of human knowledge, we need to perform experiments like this,” he said.
