Science is Fun Fridays!
The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope has produced the highest resolution image of the sun's surface.
The cell-like structures, which contain boiling plasma and are each about the size of Texas, are the signature of violent motions that transport heat from the inside of the sun to the surface. Hot solar material rises in the bright centers, cools off, and then sinks below the surface in dark lanes in a process known as convection.
In the dark lanes, we can also see the tiny bright markers of magnetic fields. These spots might be why the corona (outer layers of the solar atmosphere) is more than a million degrees.
The motions of the plasma twist and tangle the magnetic fields which leads to solar storms. The more we can learn about this space weather, the more prepared we can be for potentially harmful solar activity.
On the summit of Haleakala in Maui, Hawaii.
The National Science Foundation here will be studying the sun and space weather over the next decades, working along with NASA's Parker Solar Probe, currently in orbit.
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