New Images from the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope: Revealing the Intricacies of the Sun’s Surface

The largest and most powerful solar telescope on Earth has provided us with a stunning new view of the sun’s surface.

In a series of new images, the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope observations reveal intricate details of sunspot regions, convective cells, and the motion of plasma in the sun’s atmosphere down to a resolution of about 20 kilometers (about 12 miles).

At this scale, plasma structures look like brush strokes and textures in a painting. For distance in context, a single solar load cell is slightly smaller on average than the US state of Texas.

However, these new images of Inouye are not only designed to make you feel small and insignificant, they are a peek into science to come, as researchers analyze the sun’s surface in great detail to understand the processes that occur there.

Often larger than the rest of our planet, sunspots are usually short-lived defects where the magnetic field is unusually strong, and appear darker than the surrounding area thanks to relatively low temperatures. They are also associated with our Sun’s most catastrophic eruptions: as magnetic field lines intertwine, snap and reconnect, they release spectacular bursts of energy in the form of coronal mass ejections and eruptions.

Sunspot activity is not constant. This corresponds to a cycle of about 11 year duration, during which sunspot and flare activity rises to a peak during a solar maximum, and declines to almost nothing during a solar minimum. At solar maximum, the sun poles change places; We are currently on the path to solar maximum It is expected to take place in 2025after that solar activity will start to decrease again.

It is not known what drives this solar cycle, or What creates sunspots?. But this information is very important to us on Earth, because coronal mass ejections often associated with sunspots can send up huge clouds of colliding charged particles and harm Earth’s magnetic field. Number of blackouts for our technology-driven lifestyles.

The new Inouye image shows many of the fine structures associated with sunspots.

For example, there is darkness (it is the dark spot in the center). The bright spots that are visible in the shadows are known as canopy points. The penumbra is the lighter area around shadows. These are characterized by shiny filaments known as penumbra filaments.

Occasionally, sunspot-like areas of focused magnetic field can be seen with a canopy but no circular shadows. These are known as sun pores; They are formed when the conditions for shadow formation are not met.

And when sunspots begin to dissolve and disappear, bridges of light can cross them. Further decay makes sunspots lose their shade. It is very rare for loss processes to be recorded.

When the sun is still, it can appear completely featureless in images taken in the visible part of the spectrum.

However, even the still sun has a lot going on. The thermal cell, shown below, gives the sun’s surface, or photosphere, a “popcorn” texture. Hot plasma rises from within the center of the cell, then moves outward to the periphery, and then drops back down as it cools. The convection cells, or droplets, are enormous, up to 1,600 kilometers (994 miles).

Above the photosphere is the sun’s atmosphere, or chromosphere. They are sometimes populated by thin, dark, brush-like plasma filaments known as fibrils or spicules. They look like hair, but their fiber diameter usually ranges 200 and 450 kilometers (125 to 280 miles). It explodes from the photosphere and lasts for several minutes. Scientists don’t know how fiber is produced, but there must be plenty of it, and it is Very reliable indicator train The sun’s magnetic field is chaotic.

Scientists hope that data from Inouye will help unravel some of the mysteries of this extraordinary solar phenomenon. In turn, this can help understand the larger phenomenon; The internal dynamics of the Sun, for example, and what drives the solar cycle.

The telescope is already getting results. Earlier this year, scientists described the first observations of Solar atmospheric waves in sunspots.

“There is no other facility like the Inouye Solar Telescope,” said astronomer Thomas Rimmele, director of the Inouye Solar Telescope. he said last year. “It is now cornerstone of our mission to advance our knowledge of the Sun by providing innovative observation opportunities for the research community. This is a game changer.”

You can view and download full resolution versions of new images On the National Science Foundation website.