The most vivid view of the sun reveals the Manhattan-sized magnetic stripes
Scientists used the world’s largest solar telescope to capture incredibly detailed images of the sun’s surface, revealing ultra-fine magnetic stripes rippling over stars and magnetic fields similar to slapping curtains, which alter light.
The Daniel K. Inouye Solar telescope is 13 feet (4 meters) high on the volcano of Maui, Hawaii, and is staring at our host star with a strong height. Using the unique features of the telescope, a team led by a National Science Foundation (NSF) scientist observed the bright and dark stripes of the ultra nose on a solar sphere, an unprecedented detail. Recent observations Letter from the journal astrophysics, Provides new insights on how the solar magnetic field shapes its surface dynamics and affects space weather.
Stripes, called stripes, rotate on the walls of sun particles – regulate cells in the sun’s sphere of light, where hot gases rise from the inside of the star to reach the surface. They are about 12 miles (20 kilometers) wide, about the length of Manhattan, which is small compared to the huge size of the sun.
The stripes are the result of curtain-like magnetic fields, which ripples in magnetic fields and move on the surface of the sun. As the light from the particle wall passes through these fields, it seems to flutter between brightness and darkness. This change is an indication of the base magnetic field, which appears dark when it is relatively strong and when the magnetic field is weak and bright. “These stripes are fingerprints of high-scale magnetic fields change,” said David Kuridze, a scientist with the National Solar Observatory and the study’s lead author.
The team behind the study used the Inouye Telescope’s visible broadband imaging instrument, which operates in a specific visible range (called the G-band), called the G-band, which highlights areas with strong magnetic activity. The scientists then compared the telescope images with simulations that reproduced the physics of the solar surface and found that they were consistent.
“Magnetism is a fundamental phenomenon in the universe, and similar magnetic stripes have been observed in more distant astrophysical objects such as molecular clouds,” said Han Uitenbroek, an NSO scientist and co-author, in a statement. “The high resolution of Inouye, combined with simulation, allows us to better characterize the behavior of magnetic fields in broad astrophysical environments.”
Located about 93 million miles (149 million kilometers) from Earth, the Sun has held our solar system and its gravity for nearly 5 billion years, but we still don’t know our master star. By studying the magnetic structure of solar surfaces, scientists hope to understand the physics behind solar eruptions, flares and coronal mass eruptions so they can better predict space weather.
The Sun is currently at its maximum, a period of growth in its 11-year cycle, characterized by strong bursts that can sometimes target the Earth. On May 10, 2024, it was a G5 magnetic storm (categorized as extreme) as a result of the removal of large amounts of plasma from the sun’s corona. The G5 storm is the biggest in over 20 years, causing some harmful effects on Earth’s power grid and some spectacular aurora that has had some toxic effects on most parts of the world. The storm also increases the atmospheric density in low-Earth orbits, which can reach orders of magnitude, which in turn leads to atmospheric drag affecting the satellite.
