New video and simulations of the sun’s surface can now bring you a closer look than we’ve ever had before.
The images were captured by the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, the largest of its kind in the world, located atop the volcano Haleakalā on Maui, which translates to “house of the sun” in English.
These new images of swirling plasma provide evidence that seems to confirm a long-predicted theory about what may be occurring on the sun’s surface.
As liquids of different densities flow past one another, they swirl together at the point where they meet, creating motion that resembles hurricanes or the mixing of ocean waves.
Understanding these complex interactions on the sun may help predict space weather, particularly severe disturbances called coronal mass ejections, which can overwhelm Earth’s protective magnetic field and damage Earth’s infrastructure, including power grids and communications networks.
To see the sun’s newest and most extreme close-up yet, check out the video embedded in this article.
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