New solar telescope images reveal sun’s surface details and corona heating mystery
Consensus Summary
Scientists using the Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii have captured unprecedented images of the sun’s surface, revealing swirling vortices and Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities smaller than 20km (12 miles). These findings may explain why the sun’s corona is millions of degrees hotter than its surface, a mystery that has puzzled researchers for decades. The telescope, the world’s most powerful, observed a magnetically active region near a sunspot, with data collected in just five minutes. The sun’s surface temperature is described as 6,000C by the Guardian and 5,500 degrees Celsius by ABC, while both agree the corona reaches temperatures of a few million degrees. The images could improve predictions of solar flares and space weather, as the small-scale plasma movements appear to drive larger atmospheric phenomena.
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Key details reported by multiple sources:
- The Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii captured images showing solar surface features smaller than 20km (12 miles) across.
- The images reveal Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities (KHIs) on the sun’s surface, swirling vortices formed by plasma interactions.
- The sun’s corona reaches a few million degrees while its surface is about 6,000C (ABC: 5,500C).
- The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope is the world’s most powerful solar telescope, located on Maui’s Haleakalā volcano.
- The data acquisition for the study took only five minutes.
Points of Difference
Details reported by only one source:
- The sun’s surface was previously observed with details as small as 30km across in earlier Inouye telescope images.
- The corona mystery has persisted for the last half a century.
- The sun’s surface features include granular structures about the size of France.
- The observed solar section was 5,000 by 3,500 kilometres in size, large enough to enclose mainland Australia.
- The Sun’s corona reaches 2 million degrees Celsius.
- The telescope is named after Daniel Inouye, a US Senator from 1963 to 2012.
- The Sun is 149 million kilometres from Earth.
Contradictions
Conflicting information between sources:
- The Guardian states the sun’s surface is 6,000C, while ABC states it is 5,500 degrees Celsius.
- The Guardian mentions the corona mystery has lasted the last half a century, but ABC does not specify a duration.
Source Articles
Unprecedented images may explain one of greatest mysteries of the sun
Highest-ever resolution pictures of our star could help show why its corona is millions of degrees hotter than its surface Golden bands and swirling vortices have been spotted on the sun in the most detailed images ever captured of the turbulent surface of our home star. Astronomers observed the sun with the Inouye solar telescope in Hawaii, the world’s most powerful solar telescope, and saw new features smaller than 20km (12 miles) across in a magnetically active region close to a sun spot. Con
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