University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) researchers unveiled highest-ever resolution images of the Sun from NASA's solar sounding rocket showing the Sun's outer layer is filled with incredible fine magnetic threads filled with extremely hot, million-degree plasma that was previously unseen.

Researchers from UCLan alongside collaborators from NASA's Marshall Flight Centre (MSFC) have analyzed the high-resolution observations that will give astronomers a better understanding of what the Sun's magnetized atmosphere is made of and the way it exists.

Highest resolution ever of the Sun's atmosphere

Certain part of the Sun's atmosphere until now has appeared mostly empty or dark. However, the new images revealed by the UCLan researchers and NASA have revealed that there are strands in the Sun's atmosphere that are around 500km in width which is approximately the distance between London and Belfast, with hot electrified gases flowing inside them.

Using NASA's High-Resolution Coronal Imager or Hi-C for short, an unusual astronomical telescope carried into space on a sub-orbital rocket flight the ultra-sharp images of the Sun were taken.

The Hi-C telescope can pick out structures in the atmosphere of the Sun as small as 7km in size, or around 0.01% the size of the Sun which makes this the highest resolution images ever captured of the Sun's atmosphere.

The physical mechanism of the creation of these pervasive hot strands are still unclear. Scientific debates are focused now on the reason how these are formed, and how their presence will help us understand the eruption of solar flares and solar storms that could affect life on Earth.

Until now solar astronomers have effectively been viewing the Earth's closest star in 'standard definition'. But with the use of Hi-C telescope, scientists are able to survey a patch of the Sun in 'ultra-high definition' for the first time, said Robert Walsh, a professor of solar physics at the UCLan.

"Think of it like this: if you are watching a football match on television in standard definition, the football pitch looks green and uniform. Watch the same game in ultra-HD and the individual blades of grass can jump out at you-and that's what we're able to see with the Hi-C images. We are catching sight of the constituent parts that make up the atmosphere of the star," he added.

Relaunching Hi-C rocket mission

The team of researchers is now rolling out plans to launch the Hi-C rocket mission once again. But this time, they are planning to overlap their observations with two Sun-observing spacecraft which is NASA's Parker Solar Probe and ESA's Solar Orbiter (SolO) both are presently gathering further data.

Hi-C principal investigator at NASA MSFC, Dr. Amy Winebarger said that the new images for Hi-S gives scientists a remarkable insight into the Sun's atmosphere. They are hoping that along with ongoing missions of the Probe and SolO, this fleet of space-based instruments will reveal the Sun's dynamic outer layer in a completely new light soon.

Moreover, the fascinating discovery of the Sun's atmosphere could better inform our understanding of the flow of energy through the layers of the Sun and eventually down to Earth as it is very essential that we are to model and predict the Sun's behavior, said Dr. Tom Williams, a postdoctoral researcher at UCLan who worked on the Hi-C data.

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