The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope of the National Science Foundation (NSF) atop Haleakalā on Maui, Hawaii, has captured the clearest image of the sun’s surface ever recorded.
This remarkable image showcases ultra-fine bright lines (referred to as stripes) within the sun’s gaseous atmosphere, known as the Photosphere. According to a statement from the National Solar Observatory (NSO), which operates solar telescopes.
“This research will be the first to explore the fine structure of the solar surface with an extraordinary spatial resolution of approximately 20 km (12.4 miles), roughly the length of Manhattan Island,” stated David Kleice, the study’s lead author and an NSO scientist.
(Image credit: NSF/NSO/AURA)
The stripes alternate between bright and dark along the edges of the solar granules, which are convective cells transferring heat from the sun’s interior to its surface. These patterns result from curtain-like magnetic fields that undulate and shift like fabric in the wind.
When light from the walls of high-temperature granules passes through these magnetic “curtains,” variations in magnetic field strength lead to changes in brightness, effectively tracking the underlying magnetic structure. A weaker magnetic field will appear darker, while a stronger one will shine brightly.
Thus, this chain is seen as a signature of subtle yet significant magnetic fluctuations that alter the density and opacity of the solar plasma. These minute shifts are detectable exclusively through the visible broadband imager (VBI) of telescopes operating in the G-band, a specific range of visible light that highlights areas with heightened magnetic activity.
Understanding the solar magnetic architecture is crucial for unraveling phenomena such as solar flares, eruptions, and coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which influence space weather and can affect Earth.
The team’s findings were released on May 20th in an astrophysical letter.
This article was originally published Space.com.
Source: www.livescience.com