Stunning images captured by the world’s most powerful solar telescope reveal unprecedented detail.
The National Solar Observatory of the United States has recently released breathtaking close-up images of the “chromosphere” – the second layer of the Sun’s atmosphere.
An image showing hair-like plasma jets flowing through the chromosphere. Each jet extends up to 10,000 kilometers, reaching out to the solar corona (the outermost part of the Sun’s atmosphere).
The images were captured by the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, currently the most powerful solar telescope in the world, located on the island of Maui, Hawaii.
This telescope, constructed in 2013 at a cost of approximately $344 million, is believed by scientists to “forever change the way we explore and understand the Sun; it will also greatly assist humanity in predicting and preparing for solar storms.”
This is the first time humans have been able to observe the Sun’s surface in such close-up detail, particularly the chromosphere.
According to NASA, the outer layers of the Sun include the photosphere, chromosphere, transition region, and corona.
The photosphere is the deepest layer of the Sun that we can observe to date. It extends from the visible surface at the center of the solar disc to about 400 kilometers above that surface. The temperature in this region ranges from 6,200 degrees Celsius (at the bottom) to 3,700 degrees Celsius (at the top). Most of the photosphere is covered by the process of granulation.
The chromosphere lies between 400 kilometers and 2,100 kilometers above the Sun’s surface (measured from the photosphere). Unlike the photosphere, where the temperature decreases outward, in the chromosphere, the temperature increases as one moves away from the Sun’s center. The temperature here varies between approximately 3,700 degrees Celsius and 7,700 degrees Celsius.
The transition region is very narrow, only about 100 kilometers, located between the chromosphere and the corona (the halo of light emitted from the area surrounding the Sun), where the temperature rises dramatically from about 7,700 to 500,000 degrees Celsius.
The corona is the outermost layer of the Sun, located about 2,100 kilometers away from the photosphere. It is extremely hot, with temperatures ranging from 500,000 degrees Celsius to several million degrees Celsius. The corona cannot be seen with the naked eye, except during a total solar eclipse or when using special astronomical equipment.
Scientists believe that this modern telescope “will forever change the way we explore and understand the Sun; it will also greatly assist humanity in predicting and preparing for solar storms.” These events have a significant impact on technological life on Earth, affecting power grids, communication, GPS navigation, air travel, satellites, and astronaut activities in space.
Detailed images also allow scientists to observe cell-like structures (each the size of Texas) organized together like a honeycomb. This is also a sign of intense thermal convection movements from the Sun’s interior to its surface.
The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope also captured an image of a sunspot at the end of 2020. Sunspots are darker and cooler areas compared to other regions on the Sun’s surface. Although considered “cooler,” sunspots are still very hot, around 4,000 degrees Celsius.
The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, the world’s most powerful solar telescope, is located on the island of Maui, Hawaii.
