Discover the cosmosEach day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
Explanation:What does the new sharpest image of our Sun show?
Instability.
To be clear, a certain kind of interactive process called the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability.
This instability can createwaves and swirlswhen two streams flow past each other — in this case variable streams ofsolar magnetic plasma.
Long hypothesized to occur on the Sun’s surface, KHI streaks and swirls were confirmed in just-released dramatic high-resolution images taken recently by the Inouye SolarTelescopeinHawaii,USA.
Thefeatured false-yellow image, actually taken in deep blue, is the highest resolution image yet ofthe Suninvisible light.
It spans about the radius ofthe Earth, but its finest details are city sized.
Visible are several smooth tops ofchanging solar granules, while the edges of the flower-like structures have been found to harbor multipleKHI swirls.
Future researchmay investigate how the KHI helps move energy, magnetic fields, and may even heat the surroundingsolar corona.
Tomorrow’s picture:Rubin’s COSMOS