Publish unprecedented 'unprecedented' photos of the Sun

Photographs taken by British and NASA scientists show that the atmosphere of the Sun is much more complex than previously thought.

The highest resolution image of the Sun taken with the Hi-C telescope. Photo: NASA.

Using the Hi-C coronary telescope, astronomers at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) in the UK and NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center captured the highest resolution image ever. far to the Sun, according to research published in Astrophysics.

The image shows a portion of the star's atmosphere, previously thought to be dark and empty, filled with charged hot gas bands. Each range is up to 500 km wide and can reach temperatures of nearly one million degrees C.

Part of the atmosphere is filled with charged hot gas bands. Photo: NASA.

"This is a great discovery! It provides insight into the flow of energy in the Sun's atmospheric layers before they are transmitted to Earth. This is important if we want to model and predict star behavior, "emphasizes Tom Williams, postdoctoral researcher at UCLan.

With high-resolution imaging capabilities, the Hi-C telescope can identify structures up to 70 km in the solar atmosphere, or 0.01% of the star radius. The device can clearly see the magnetic bands in "dark areas" made of super-hot plasma, up to million degrees.

Although they have confirmed the existence of hot air bands, the team is still debating the origin and their impact on solar storms that may affect life on Earth. Land.