NSF’s Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope has produced the highest resolution observations of the Sun’s surface ever taken. <br /> <br />In this movie, taken at a wavelength of 705 nm over a period of 10 minutes, we can see features as small as 30 km (18 miles) in size for the first time ever. <br /> <br />The movie shows the turbulent, ‘boiling’ gas that covers the entire Sun. <br /> <br />The cell-like structures -- each about the size of Texas -- are the signature of violent motions that transport heat from the inside of the sun to its surface. <br /> <br />Hot solar material (plasma) rises in the bright centers of ‘cells,’ cools off and then sinks below the surface in dark lanes in a process known as convection. <br /> <br />In these dark lanes we can also see the tiny, bright markers of magnetic fields. <br /> <br />Never before seen to this clarity, these bright specks are thought to channel energy up into the outer layers of the solar atmosphere called the corona. <br /> <br />These bright spots may be at the core of why the solar corona is more than a million degrees! <br /> <br />This movie covers an area 19,000 x 10,700 km (11,800 x 6,700 miles or 27 x 15 arcseconds). <br /> <br />Credits: NSO / NSF / AURA.
