Solar Telescope Reveals Secrets of Sun's Surface with Stunning Images

The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, the world's most powerful solar telescope, has recorded the clearest pictures and videos ever taken of the sun's surface. This research was published in the journal Nature on August 5. Scientists saw very closely the near side of a sunspot from this telescope on the island of Maui in Hawaii. During this time, they saw small rotating magnetic vortices on the sun's surface. Scientists say that this can be a big help in understanding how solar storms are formed and why the sun's outer layer corona is so hot. The sun looks calm from a distance, but its surface is always moving. There is a constant flow of hot plasma and magnetic fields are also changing. With the help of new photos and computer simulations, scientists have been able to see these small vortices for the first time. They believe that these vortices play an important role in the formation and spread of magnetic energy in the sun. Scientists call it Kelvin-Heltholtz (KHH) or Helm-Holtz (KHH).