Sun’s Surface Seen in Remarkable Detail in New Images From Solar Telescope3Photo© gadgets.ndtv.com

Sun’s Surface Seen in Remarkable Detail in New Images From Solar Telescope

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Never-before-seen images of the Sun's turbulent surface have been released by astronomers in the US. The Daniel K Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) in Hawaii has released pictures that show features as small as 30km across the sun, reported the BBC.

This is remarkable when set against the scale of our star, which has a diameter of about 1.4 million kilometres and is 149 million kilometres from Earth. The cell-like structures are roughly the size of the US state of Texas. They are convecting masses of hot, excited gas, or plasma.

The bright centres are where this solar material is rising; the surrounding dark lanes are where plasma is cooling and sinking. The DKIST is a brand new facility positioned atop Haleakala, a 3,000 metres tall volcano on the Hawaiian island of Maui.