Scientists have used the world's most powerful solar telescope, the Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii, to capture the surface of the Sun in unprecedented detail. The new images and footage reveal "whirlpools" of activity that had not been observed before.
This activity is described as the Sun's magnetic field being twisted and moved by the motion of hot gas. This constant swirling is a driving force behind bursts of energy from the Sun, which create space weather that can disrupt Earth's power grids and satellites, and potentially injure astronauts.
The phenomenon observed is termed "Kelvin-Helmholtz instability," which occurs when fluids, in this case hot gases, slide past each other, causing small disturbances to grow into spiralling vortices. Dr. David Kuridze, an NSO astronomer, stated that these twisting motions generate magnetic energy that can build up to produce large-scale explosions.
Dr. Friedrich Woeger, also from the NSO, explained that finding this instability on the Sun's surface helps to explain the dynamics behind space weather and why the Sun's surface is so hot, by showing how energy is transported upwards. Dr. David Boboltz from the US National Solar Observatory (NSO) noted that more detailed pictures of the Sun will aid in responding to space weather and understanding the physics of the Sun down to the smallest scales.