Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.<\/p>\n
Explanation:\u00a0What does the new sharpest image of our Sun show? Instability. To be clear, a certain kind of interactive process called the\u00a0Kelvin-Helmholtz instability\u00a0(KHI). This instability can create\u00a0waves and swirls\u00a0when two streams flow past each other — in this case variable streams of\u00a0solar magnetic plasma. Long hypothesized to occur on the\u00a0Sun's surface, KHI streaks and swirls were confirmed in just-released dramatic high-resolution images taken recently by the\u00a0Inouye Solar\u00a0Telescope\u00a0in\u00a0Hawaii,\u00a0USA.\u00a0 The\u00a0featured false-yellow image, actually taken in deep blue, is the highest resolution image yet of\u00a0the Sun\u00a0in\u00a0visible light. It spans about the radius of\u00a0the Earth, but its finest details are city sized. Visible are several smooth tops of\u00a0changing solar granules, while the edges of the flower-like structures have been found to harbor multiple\u00a0KHI swirls.\u00a0Future research\u00a0may investigate how the KHI helps move energy, magnetic fields, and may even heat the surrounding\u00a0solar corona.Tomorrow's picture:\u00a0Rubin's COSMOS<\/p>\n