New images of the sun show its surface in finest detail yet

Scientists have captured images of the sun’s surface in the finest detail yet.

Researchers were able to peek at its scorching surface with the help of the National Science Foundation’s Daniel K Inouye Solar Telescope, located on the island of Maui in Hawaii.

Scientists originally took the images for a different reason: to fine-tune and test the limits of the telescope. But when they looked at the results, they realised they had photographed the sun’s bright outer shell at higher resolution than ever before.

They saw strange feathery patterns rippling across the surface.

Researchers saw ripples of instability on the sun’s surface caused by bits of magnetised plasma moving past each other at different speeds – similar to waves that stir when a gust of wind blows over water. It is a well-known phenomenon that guides how fluids move.

This has been glimpsed on Earth and other planets such as Jupiter and Saturn, but “it has not been observed ever at that level on the solar surface”, according to study co-author Friedrich Woger with the National Solar Observatory.

The findings were published on Wednesday in the journal Nature.

Scientists are curious about the sun’s inner workings to better track massive bursts of energy called coronal mass ejections that can hurl toward Earth. When they hit, they can trigger solar storms, potentially scrambling GPS communications and producing colourful auroras.