Details hidden under the glow: scientists took clear photos of spots on the Sun
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The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope produced a series of detailed images of sunspots. The photos show the movement of plasma in the solar atmosphere with a resolution of about 20 kilometers, writes Science Alert with reference to the website of the National Science Foundation. Plasma structures are “compared” with strokes and textures in the picture. Scientists note that sunspots can be larger than the Earth. However, they are short-lived and occur near strong magnetic fields. A sunspot with shadow, penumbra, and penumbra filaments. Photo: National Science Foundation Sunspot activity is not constant. It is tied to 11-year cycles, during which the activity of spots and flares reaches a peak at solar maximum (the period of greatest solar activity in the cycle) and hardly decreases during solar minimum. Scientists currently do not know what causes these solar cycles or what creates sunspots. In these spots, scientists distinguish shadow and penumbra (a bright area around the shadow). The telescope also photographed sunspots – areas that look like a shadow, but without the peripheral penumbra. What does a light bridge look like “When a sunspot begins to decay and disappear, it can be crossed by light bridges. Further decay causes the sunspot to lose its penumbra; it is very rare to record the process of this loss,” scientists from the National Science Foundation note. Scientists have also photographed a “popcorn”-like texture on the Sun. It occurs when hot plasma rises from the center of an area on the star’s surface and moves to the edges, falling back as it cools. Such “pellets” have a diameter of more than 1.5 thousand km. The structure is similar to “popcorn”. Scientists also managed to photograph thin “plasma threads”, similar to smears, called fibrils or spicules. Their diameter reaches 200-450 km. Fibrils or “plasma threads” We will remind you that scientists have recently studied the Milky Way and suggest that it may have a different shape. Read also: Hubble photographed a brilliant star cluster: it may contain a black hole
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