Astronomers have just released the highest resolution images of the sun ever seen. They were taken by the Inouye Solar Telescope atop Haleakala volcano in Maui, Hawaii.
The telescope’s first images show a cell-like network of “boiling” plasma on the sun’s surface. The cellular bubbles are created by the violent motion of hot plasma bursting out from the sun’s core, then sinking into darkened channels between the other bubbles as it cools.
Each “cell” is about the size of Texas.
The telescope will be able to map the magnetic fields within the sun’s corona, where solar eruptions occur that can impact life on Earth.
Mapping the sun’s magnetic fields could help scientists predict problems on Earth such as GPS disruptions, satellite glitches and power grid failures.
