The most detailed images ever taken of the sun's surface have been released, captured by the world's largest solar telescope. For the first time, scientists directly observed a phenomenon predicted 150 years ago that may explain why the sun's atmosphere is far hotter than its surface.
The images were taken by the National Science Foundation's Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, located on the island of Maui in Hawaii. Researchers said the findings could help solve a long-standing mystery in solar physics: why the sun's outer atmosphere, or corona, is millions of degrees hotter than the visible surface beneath it.
The newly observed phenomenon on the sun's surface has been theorized for over a century but had never been directly seen until now. The telescope's unprecedented resolution allowed scientists to capture the details clearly.
Experts described the images as a major step forward in understanding the sun's behavior. The phenomenon could play a key role in transferring energy from the sun's surface to its atmosphere, heating the corona to extreme temperatures.
The observations mark a significant achievement for the Inouye telescope, which is designed to study the sun in detail and improve space weather forecasting. Further analysis of the images may provide more insights into how the sun's magnetic fields and plasma interactions drive the intense heat of its outer layers.