Scientists capture plasma flow, coronal raindrops, in the sharpest view of the sun’s corona

Among the landmark achievements of solar astronomy, scientists reveal the most detailed astronomical perspective ever – its external atmosphere overheated – reveals strange, never-seen plasma characteristics, including delicate “raindrops” and high-speed, high-speed plasma flows. Captured using a cutting-edge adaptive optics installed by the Goode Solar Telescope (GST) in California, the new lens provides unparalleled phenomena that are overshadowed by the turbulent atmosphere of the planet. These images show the cooler’s plasma in a light color representing hydrogen alpha, which tracks the sun’s magnetic field in fascinating rings and arcs.

The clearest solar landscape reveals the highlights of crown rain, racing pulp and twists

According to researchers at the NJIT Sun Intersection Research Center, adaptive optics enable the 1.6-meter telescope to reach 63 kilometers of its theoretical resolution limit. Among them, the clearest field of view of the crown rain – a narrow filament falling back to the solar surface along the magnetic field line, with a width of only 20 kilometers. Unlike the Earth’s rainwater, these plasma arcs and cycles respond to the magnetic properties of the sun. Another striking discovery is the observation of the fast moving “slurry” that is the plasma racing car that spans Corona at nearly 100 kilometers per second.

The lens also captures the rapidly reconfigured sun prominence – anchored on the sun’s surface, twisting and dancing under magnetic tension. Scientists believe that this observation can shed light on the mechanisms of coronal mass ejection and solar flares, the main drivers of space weather. The sun’s surface appears soft and “fluffy” due to brief plasma ejection of Spicules, and its origin remains mysterious.

The team’s discovery was published in Nature magazine on Tuesday, May 27.

“This marks the beginning of a new era in solar astronomy,” said study co-author Philip Goode. Now, researchers hope to implement similar technologies in large tools such as the Daniel K. Inouye solar telescope in Hawaii.