The Watchers by Julie Celestial April 14, 2020
New high-resolution images of the Sun unveil incredibly fine magnetic threads filled with million-degree plasma
Researchers from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) in the UK and NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center revealed the highest-ever resolution images of the Sun featuring its outer layer of incredibly fine magnetic threads filled with extremely hot, million-degree plasma-- a sight previously unseen. The observations will help astronomers further understand what the Sun's magnetized atmosphere is made of and the way it exists.
Certain parts of the Sun's atmosphere has appeared dark or mostly empty until now. However, new images showed by the UCLan researchers and NASA have revealed that there are strands in the Sun's atmosphere that are about 500 km (311 miles) in width, filled with electrified gases inside them.
NASA's High-Resolution Coronal Imager or Hi-C took the ultra-sharp images-- this unique astronomical telescope can pick out structures in the Sun's atmosphere as intricate as 70 km (44 miles) in size, or roughly 0.01 percent of the Sun.
"Until now solar astronomers have effectively been viewing our closest star in ‘standard definition’, whereas the exceptional quality of the data provided by the Hi-C telescope allows us to survey a patch of the Sun in ‘ultra-high definition’ for the first time," said Robert Walsh, professor of solar physics at UCLan and the institutional lead for the Hi-C crew.
More:
https://watchers.news/2020/04/14/new-high-resolution-images-of-the-sun-unveil-incredibly-fine-magnetic-threads-filled-with-million-degree-plasma/
