New images of the sun show its surface in finest detail yet
Scientists have captured the highest-resolution images of the sun's surface to date using the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii. The images reveal feathery patterns of magnetized plasma, providing new insights into solar activity that can impact Earth's communications.
Why it matters
Understanding solar surface dynamics is essential for predicting coronal mass ejections, which can disrupt GPS and satellite infrastructure on Earth.
Scientists have captured images of the sun’s surface in the finest detail yet.
Researchers were able to peek at its 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 originally took the images for a different reason: to fine-tune and test the limits of the telescope. But when they looked at the results, they realised they had photographed the sun’s bright outer shell at higher resolution than ever before.
They saw strange feathery patterns rippling across the surface.
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