--- title: "The Highest Def Photo of the Sun Looks Like Caramel Popcorn" description: "Scientists just released the highest resolution images of the Sun's surface ever taken using the largest solar telescope in the world." date: "2020-01-29" modified: "2020-01-29" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/highest-def-photo-sun" categories: - "Science & Energy" tags: - "Plasma" - "Sun" - "the digest" --- # The Highest Def Photo of the Sun Looks Like Caramel Popcorn ![Scientists just released the highest resolution images of the Sun's surface ever taken using the largest solar telescope in the world.]() *\Image: NSO/AURA/NSF\* ## Say Cheese Scientists just released the highest resolution images of the Sun's surface ever taken, obtained with the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) in Hawaii, the largest solar telescope in the world. "This telescope will improve our understanding of what drives space weather and ultimately help forecasters better predict solar storms," director of the US National Solar Observatory (NSO) France Córdova said in [a statement](). ![]() *Image Credit: NSO/AURA/NSF* ## Sun Fun The images show patterns of the turbulent plasma that covers the entire Sun. Each visible cell is about the size of Texas. Hot plasma rises in the center of each cell and cools as it sinks back below the surface, forming the dark lines surrounding the cells — a process known as convection. "What we previously thought looked like a bright point – one structure – is now breaking down into many smaller structures," Thomas Rimmele, the director of the Inouye solar telescope project [told *The Guardian*](). ## Enhance Now, the team operating the telescope is preparing it for use by the international solar scientific community. "The Inouye Solar Telescope will collect more information about our Sun during the first 5 years of its lifetime than all the solar data gathered since Galileo first pointed a telescope at the Sun in 1612," NSF astronomical sciences director David Boboltz said in the statement. **READ MORE:** [The best picture ever taken of the sun reveals its bizarre surface]() \[*New Scientist*\] **More on the Sun:** *[Scientists Mystified: Sun’s Magnetic Field Appears to be Flipping]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()