resolution image ever of the Sun's surface – Physics World

An international team of astronomers has released the highest-resolution image ever captured of the Sun’s visible surface . Taken by the Daniel K Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii, the picture reveals tiny plasma whirlpool-like patterns that have never been seen before ( Nature doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10871-3 ).

The Sun’s visible surface – the photosphere – is a thin layer of its atmosphere where the fluid plasma becomes transparent. This region is known to be dynamic and complex, with factors such as magnetic field and convection currents shaping the atmosphere.

The studied region by the astronomers is a magnetically active area close to a sunspot. In the image, the solar surface appears dominated by band-like and vortex-like structures.

The authors associate these features with Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities, a well-known effect in fluid dynamics in which rippled structures form when two fluids slide past each other at different speeds.