Scientists have captured the Sun's visible surface in unprecedented detail, revealing tiny swirling patterns that could help explain how solar activity develops.
Researchers used the National Science Foundation's Daniel K Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii to observe a magnetically active region near a sunspot. The observations provided a detailed view of the Sun's photosphere, its visible surface, where magnetic fields interact with moving plasma.
By combining the observations with computer simulations, researchers identified patterns consistent with Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, a phenomenon caused when two fluids moving at different speeds pass alongside each other. The interaction can create disturbances that develop into spiralling vortices.
The instability has previously been observed in ocean and lake waves, cloud formations and the atmospheres of planets such as Jupiter and Saturn. The researchers said the Inouye telescope observations mark the first time the phenomenon has been seen on the Sun.
The findings, published in Nature, could help explain how magnetic energy builds up on the Sun. This energy can drive solar flares and coronal mass ejections, which release particles into space. When directed towards Earth, these events can disrupt satellites, power grids and communication systems.
Scientists have long proposed that the Sun stores magnetic energy through a process known as flux braiding, in which magnetic field lines twist around one another. As the tension increases, the fields can become unstable, reconnect and release large amounts of energy.
However, the mechanism responsible for creating the twisting patterns has remained unclear. The new observations suggest that swirling motions along the boundaries of magnetic regions on the solar surface could twist magnetic fields together, providing a possible explanation for how the energy builds up.
The researchers said the observations offer a new way to study the processes that contribute to solar activity.