Plasma whirlpools on the sun could trigger solar flares
The world's largest sun-observing telescope, the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, has captured the most detailed images of the sun's surface, revealing high-energy plasma whirlpools. Researchers suggest these swirling plasma instabilities could twist the sun's magnetic field, building up energy that is then unleashed as solar flares, which impact space weather and Earth's technology.
Why it matters
This discovery provides new insights into the mechanisms behind solar flares, which are crucial for understanding and predicting space weather events that can disrupt satellites, power grids, and communication systems on Earth.
The world’s biggest sun-observing telescope spotted these swirls for the first time
This is the most detailed image of the sun’s surface ever captured. The structures seen here are swirls of magnetized plasma. Such whirlpools may power up solar flares.
The most detailed pictures of the sun ever taken have caught a surprising new feature. High-energy whirlpools, it seems, speckle the surface of our star.
The sun is a giant ball of superhot, electrically charged gas called plasma . The sun’s surface is unstable, the new images hint. That instability — the swirling plasma — could end up twisting the sun’s magnetic field. And that, in turn, could build up energy that later gets unleashed as a solar explosion.
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