Sun's surface imaged in finest detail

Scientists using the United States — National Science Foundation's Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope on Maui, Hawaii, have captured the most detailed images ever taken of the Sun's surface. The images, initially taken to calibrate the telescope, revealed feather-like patterns rippling across the surface, identified as Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI) caused by magnetized plasma moving at different speeds. This phenomenon, previously observed on Earth and other planets, has never been seen at this level on the solar surface. The findings, published in Nature, are considered a major step forward in understanding solar and stellar plasma dynamics and could improve tracking of coronal mass ejections that affect Earth's space weather.