Unprecedented views of sun’s surface reveal surprising whirlpools

The world’s most powerful solar telescope has captured the highest resolution observations of the sun’s visible surface — and uncovered a hidden process that drives solar activity. Scientists used the National Science Foundation’s Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, located near the summit of Haleakalā, a volcano on the Hawaiian island of Maui, to zoom into a magnetically active area near a sunspot. Sunspots are considered hotspots of solar activity. The imagery and time-lapse video reveal an unprecedented look at the sun’s complex and dynamic photosphere, the visible surface of the sun that exists as a thin layer of atmosphere shaped by magnetic fields and currents of fluid plasma. Combining the detailed imagery with computer simulations helped researchers arrive at a major solar physics breakthrough: identifying the signature of small whirlpools on the sun’s surface that could directly impact life on Earth.