Very thin dark filaments of plasma that bend following the complex lines of the magnetic field of the sun when our star emits a powerful X -class X -ray brilliant, the highest incredibly clear record image captured by the American telescope Daniel K. Inouye, the largest terrestrial solar telescope, located over 3 thousand meters of altitude at the top of the volcano. Haleakala in Hawaii.
The result, published in the magazine The Astrophysical Journal Letters by a group of researchers led by the University of Colorado in Boulder, could change our understanding of the magnetic architecture of the sun and thus allow to improve the space weather forecast. “This is the first time that the Inouye solar telescope observes an X -class brilliant,” says Cole Tamburri, who coordinated the study: “It is an epochal moment for solar science”.
The image obtained on August 8, 2024, in fact, has immortalized the so -called coronalì rings with an unprecedented resolution, i.e. plasma arches generated by the magnetic field that extend in the solar atmosphere and which often precede the brilliant. The observed rings have an average width of about 48 kilometers and are perhaps only 21 kilometers thick: these dimensions make the youngest ever seen.
“We are finally observing the space stairs on which we have speculated for years,” continues Tamburri. «This opens the doors to the study not only of the size of the coronal rings, but also of their forms, their evolution and even the stairs to which the magnetic reconnection takes place, the engine of solar brilliant. It’s like passing – concludes the researcher – from seeing a forest to seeing every single tree suddenly ».