WASHINGTON >> Astronomers have obtained the highest-resolution images to date of our sun\u2019s visible surface, observing swirling, vortex-like patterns in superheated solar gases reminiscent of the shapes depicted in the nocturnal sky in Vincent van Gogh\u2019s 1889 painting \u201cThe Starry Night.\u201d<\/p>\n
The researchers made the observations of a portion of the sun\u2019s photosphere, a relatively thin layer about 60 miles in depth, compared to the overall solar diameter of roughly 865,000 miles, using the U.S. National Science Foundation\u2019s Hawaii-based Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope.<\/p>\n
The still images and time-lapse video reveal continuously growing whirls of hot plasma, gas heated to temperatures so high that subatomic particles called electrons break free from atoms and form a broth of charged particles. The observed whirls are large on a human scale but small on the scale of a stellar surface, with diameters ranging from about 12 miles, the minimum scale detectable by the world\u2019s most powerful solar telescope, up to roughly 100 miles.<\/p>\n
The researchers said the observations may provide insight into underlying physical processes that impact the dynamics of the sun and other stars, including eruptions from the solar surface that can interfere with the operation of satellites, GPS navigation, power grids and global communications on Earth.<\/p>\n
The curly, circular patterns do not represent random shapes, but rather are the first detection of a phenomenon called Kelvin-Helmholtz instability on the surface of a star. First described in the 19th century, Kelvin-Helmholtz instability refers to a dynamic process that happens when two parallel streams of fluids or gases interact while moving at different velocities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe interface can become unstable and develop wave-like vortices that grow in size until they break apart, not unlike waves out on a lake or out on the ocean in windy conditions,\u201d said astronomer Friedrich W\u00f6ger, a senior scientist at the National Science Foundation\u2019s National Solar Observatory in Colorado, the Inouye telescope\u2019s instrument program scientist and co-lead author of the study published today in the journal Nature.<\/p>\n
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Swirling clouds caused by Kelvin-Helmholtz instability are a well-known, albeit rare, meteorological occurrence on Earth, and also have been observed in the atmospheres of the giant gas planets Jupiter and Saturn, W\u00f6ger said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe difference from the waves and clouds we know here on Earth is that the two interacting fluids are hot plasma, about 6,000 degrees Kelvin and 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, moving within a magnetic field that helps create the conditions for the instability to develop,\u201d W\u00f6ger said.<\/p>\n
By twisting the solar magnetic field, Kelvin-Helmholtz instability creates energy that can suddenly unleash an explosion. W\u00f6ger called the discovery of solar Kelvin-Helmholtz instability a true game-changer, saying it opens up a new framework for understanding how the sun energizes its atmosphere.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sun and sun-like stars are extremely dynamic systems, characterized by a whole spectrum of rapid, explosive events within their magnetic elements. How these explosions are triggered is one of the main frontiers in modern solar physics,\u201d National Solar Observatory astronomer and study co-lead author David Kuridze said.<\/p>\n
The manifestation might help explain why the sun\u2019s outer atmosphere becomes as hot as it does and why magnetic energy accumulates and moves around on the solar surface.<\/p>\n
The constant twisting motions generated by Kelvin-Helmholtz instability can gradually build the energy required to trigger coronal mass ejections and solar flares, Kuridze said. Coronal mass ejections are huge bubbles of gas threaded with magnetic field lines that are expelled from the sun\u2019s surface. Solar flares are gigantic explosions on the sun that propel light, energy and high-speed particles into space.<\/p>\n
Aside from the science, the researchers admired the beauty of the new close-up views of the sun. \u201cMaybe magnificent comes closest to describing the aesthetics in the images for us,\u201d W\u00f6ger said.<\/p>\n
\u201cInterestingly, artists have long captured this fluid dynamic intuition in their work. A famous example is Van Gogh\u2019s \u2018The Starry Night,\u2019 where the sky\u2019s vortex structures closely resemble turbulent Kelvin-Helmholtz instability structures,\u201d Kuridze said. \u201cA similar parallel appears in Hokusai\u2019s famous woodblock print, \u2018The Great Wave off Kanagawa,\u2019 where the curling crests of the wave echo the iconic shape of Kelvin-Helmholtz instability billows. It shows how the fundamental geometry of nature deeply resonates with human art.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON >> Astronomers have obtained the highest-resolution images to date of our sun\u2019s visible surface, observing swirling, vortex-like…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":804171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[2413,79],"class_list":["post-804170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-national-news","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/804171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}