Astronomers capture highest-resolution image ever of the Sun’s surface

Physics World reports that astronomers have captured the highest-resolution image ever of the Sun's visible surface using the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii. Published in Nature, the breakthrough reveals tiny plasma vortex structures never observed before. To grasp the resolution: imagine spotting a one-euro coin from one hundred eighty kilometers away. These vortex patterns, some just twenty kilometers wide, form at the edges of larger solar granules and are driven by what physicists call Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities—a well-known effect in fluid dynamics where rippled or vortex-like structures emerge when two layers of fluid slide past each other at different speeds. Researchers believe these plasma vortices might finally explain why the Sun's outer atmosphere is so much hotter than its visible surface.

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