Just in time for the bright days before the Northern Hemisphere’s summer solstice, the National Science Foundation’s Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) Released some new stellar images of the Sun.Observation from The Largest and Most Powerful Solar Telescope on Earth It shows the motion of plasma in the Sun’s atmosphere, intricate details of sunspot regions, and the swirling convective cells of the Sun. His Visible-Broadband Imager, one of DKIST’s first-generation instruments, captured these snapshots of the Sun and was released to the public on May 19.
A sunspot in an image is a cold, dark region on the Sun’s “surface” called the photosphere. Sunspots have short lifespans, but strong magnetic fields persist here. Sunspots vary in size, but many are as large as or larger than Earth. Sunspot groups can explode in explosive events such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that produce solar flares and solar storms. Flares and CMEs affect the Sun’s outermost atmospheric layer, called the heliosphere, and these disturbances are widespread and can even disrupt Earth’s infrastructure.
[Related: The sun’s chromosphere is shades of golden in these new images.]
Sunspot activity is also associated with a cycle of about 11 years. During the cycle, sunspot and flare activity peaks in solar activity when the Sun’s poles switch places. Activity then recedes to near zero during the solar minimum. The most recent solar cycle, Solar Cycle 25, began in 2019.and on the rise: the next solar maximum is expected to occur in 2025.
Astronomers and solar physicists don’t know what creates sunspots and drives the solar cycle, but understanding more could help Earth prepare for CMEs. These emissions can cause huge clouds of charged particles to collide with the Earth’s magnetic field, affecting satellites, wireless communications and even power grids.
However, not all CMEs wreak havoc. Some also cause colorful auroras (or northern lights) in the northern hemisphere. aurora australia in the Southern Hemisphere. in Aprilproduced by CME violent magnetic storm. This geomagnetic storm was not destructive, but the aurora it produced was visible as far south as Arizona.
[Related: How hundreds of college students are helping solve a centuries-old mystery about the sun.]
also shown in the image convection cellThe quiet regions of the Sun can measure up to about 12 miles in diameter, with diameters up to 994 miles. A convective cell is primitive sphereor the visible surface of the sun, a speckled popcorn-like texture, Hot plasma rises from the center of the cell, moves toward the edge of the cell, then cools and falls..
In the layers of the sun’s atmosphere, the chromosphere lies above the photosphere. In the chromosphere, black hair-like threads of plasma called fibrils or spicules are sometimes present.they Diameters range from 125 to 280 miles and Ejects from the photosphere to the chromosphere And it lasts only a few minutes.
As the Solar Telescope goes into full operation, we can expect to see even more amazing images of cells and other solar features in the years to come. DKIST is Late Hawaii Senator Daniel K. Inouyethe world’s largest solar telescope. 13 feet wide.Located on top of mountains and volcanoes Haleakala Maui’s House of the Sun.that is Currently in operational commissioning phase, observatory learning and transition period. Scientists plan to use the Solar Telescope’s unique capabilities to capture unprecedented detail in data to better understand the causes behind the sun’s magnetic field and solar storms.
