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A stunning new image of a huge dark spot on the sun looks like a heart or a flaming flower.
The sunspot – where strong magnetic fields meet hot gases boiling from within – is about 10,000 miles in diameter. It’s wide enough that Earth has some leeway inside.
The world’s largest solar observatory, the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope on the Hawaiian island of Maui, captured the phenomenon in unprecedented detail on January 28. The National Science Foundation, owner of the telescope, released the image and video of the sunspot on Friday.
“The sunspot image reaches a spatial resolution approximately 2.5 times higher than ever before, showing magnetic structures as small as 20 kilometers on the surface of the sun,” Thomas Rimmele, associate director of the National Solar Observatory of the NSF, which operates the telescope, said in a press release.
Sunspots form in areas where the sun’s magnetic field is so strong that it lowers atmospheric pressure, which lowers the temperature. In this case, the dark spot is at 7,500 degrees Fahrenheit.
The flower petal-like streaks escaping from the dark spot are caused by the interaction between magnetic fields and hot gases bubbling below the surface.
This roaring action can be seen in the video clip below. It captures about a minute and a half of real-time solar activity, compressed into just four seconds. The frame measures approximately 12,000 miles in diameter.
NSF / NSO / AURA
Inouye could help predict violent eruptions on the sun
The Inouye telescope caused a sensation when its first observations were published in January. Although the telescope is not yet complete, its first images of the sun were clearer than those of any previous telescope.
A film from the Inouye solar telescope shows how the sun’s plasma moves across its surface.
NSO / NSF / AURA
This powerful lens could help scientists unravel the mysteries of space weather and even predict solar events that could be dangerous to humans.
This is because the entire solar system is within the outer limits of the sun’s atmosphere. Magnetic and electrically charged particles from the sun are constantly sweeping the planets in a constant flux called the solar wind. This magnetic current creates auroras when it interacts with the Earth’s atmosphere. But violent explosions on the sun send out surges of electrically charged particles that can damage crucial technology.
An animation of the solar wind shows particles flowing from the sun to the Earth.
NASA
By using Inoye to study the dynamics of these events, scientists could begin to predict them.
Inouye could also help solve a major mystery: why the sun’s corona is up to 500 times hotter than its surface. Astronomers have struggled to understand this phenomenon since the 1940s.
Construction of the telescope was due to be completed in June this year, but the pandemic has pushed it back to 2021.
The Inouye Solar Telescope is located near the summit of Haleakalā in Maui, Hawai’i.
NSO / AURA / NSF
“The start of telescope operations has been slightly delayed due to the impacts of the global COVID-19 pandemic,” David Boboltz, NSF program director for Inouye, said in the statement.
But he added that “this image represents a first glimpse of the unprecedented capabilities the installation will bring to our understanding of the sun.”
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