No one on Earth has ever seen the sun in as much detail or depth before today’s images that were released. Taken by the brand new 4-meter Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawai’i, they give us a stunning view of our star, usually so bright we can’t even look at it.
To give you a sense of scale, each of the ‘cells’ that make up the suns plasma structure in this close-up are about the size of Texas. Wow. It’s a staggering sight, and even more impressive when you see the video movement. The video below shows about ten minutes of movement from the surface of the sun. Via Aura Astronomy:
The first images from NSF’s Inouye Solar Telescope show a close-up view of the Sun’s surface, which can provide important detail for scientists. The images show a pattern of turbulent “boiling” plasma that covers the entire Sun. 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. That hot solar 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.
-Aura Astronomy