Chapter 1: The Sun's Dynamic Surface

Recent images showcase features on the sun's surface as small as 18 miles (30 km) across. Each illuminated “cell” corresponds to rising plasma, which cools, darkens, and then descends. These groundbreaking visuals, described as the most detailed to date, illustrate superheated structures that evoke the cellular formations seen under a microscope. While the sun is not alive in the biological sense, it is teeming with vigorous convection—akin to boiling water but at a cosmic scale—offering unprecedented insights into its activity.

The cells, each comparable in size to Texas, are areas of turbulent superheated gas known as plasma. This plasma transports heat from the sun's interior to its surface, where it cools and sinks back down. The darker regions in these images indicate the cooler, descending plasma.

At its core, the sun reaches temperatures exceeding 27 million degrees Fahrenheit (15 million degrees Celsius), while its upper interior can be “cool” at around 3.5 million degrees F (2 million degrees C).

The images are the first captured by the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, a 13-foot (4-meter) instrument operated by the National Science Foundation. “This telescope will enhance our comprehension of the mechanisms driving space weather and ultimately assist forecasters in predicting solar storms more accurately,” stated NSF director France Córdova.

The sun, approximately 5 billion years old, is expected to continue burning for another 4.5 billion years, consuming 5 million tons of hydrogen every second. This relentless activity, combined with the sun's intense magnetism, leads to solar flares and storms that can disrupt satellites, electrical systems, and communications on Earth.

Chapter 2: The Threat of Solar Flares

The most significant solar flares in history, if they were to occur today, could wreak havoc on terrestrial communications. There are concerns among scientists that a rare solar “superflare” might severely impact human society.

Our interconnected and electrified world renders us particularly vulnerable to the abrupt effects of solar phenomena. That’s why numerous satellites, ground-based observatories, and scientists are dedicated to monitoring solar activity. They aim to understand these phenomena better and provide advance warnings to satellite operators and utility companies when the sun exhibits potentially harmful behavior.

The new observatory, located on Hawaii’s Haleakalā volcano, boasts the largest mirror of any solar telescope and is expected to significantly contribute to these efforts. “On Earth, we can predict rain with remarkable accuracy almost anywhere globally, but we are not at that level with space weather,” remarked Matt Mountain, president of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, which oversees the Inouye telescope. “Our predictive capabilities lag behind terrestrial weather by 50 years or more. We need to understand the fundamental physics behind space weather, starting with solar studies, which the Inouye Solar Telescope will facilitate in the coming decades.”