Scientists Release Closest-Ever Images of the Sun
Thanks to the Inouye telescope in Hawaii, the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability-a phenomenon that creates distinctive wavy vortices-has been observed on the star's surface for the first time.
Thanks to the Inouye telescope in Hawaii, the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability-a phenomenon that creates distinctive wavy vortices-has been observed on the star's surface for the first time.
Astronomers on Wednesday, August 5, 2026, released the closest and clearest images of the Sun's visible surface to date. The images show swirling patterns in superheated solar gases that are strikingly reminiscent of the sky in Vincent van Gogh's famous 1889 painting "The Starry Night."
The images were captured by the Daniel K. Inouye telescope, installed in the Hawaiian archipelago, which is considered the most powerful ground-based telescope dedicated exclusively to observing the Sun. They were published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature.
For the first time, researchers have detected the so-called Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI) on the surface of a star. This is a dynamic process that occurs when two parallel streams of fluid or gas interact while moving at different speeds.
"The interface can become unstable and develop wavy vortices that grow in size until they break apart, similar to waves on a lake or ocean in windy conditions," explained astronomer Friedrich Wöger, senior scientist at the National Solar Observatory (NSO) in Colorado and one of the lead authors of the study.
Unlike similar phenomena on Earth, Jupiter, or Saturn, this involves the interaction of extremely hot plasma. "The difference from the waves and clouds we know here on Earth is that the two interacting fluids are hot plasma-around 6,000 degrees Kelvin and 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5,540 degrees Celsius)-moving within a magnetic field that helps create the conditions for the instability to develop," Wöger added.
The photographs and time-lapse videos reveal constantly growing vortices of hot plasma. The diameters of these vortices range from a minimum of 12 miles (19 km), which is also the telescope's detection limit, up to a maximum of 100 miles (170 km). For comparison, they were observed in the photosphere, a relatively thin layer of the Sun's visible surface about 60 miles (100 km) deep, while the Sun's total diameter is approximately 865,000 miles (1.4 million km).
Scientists believe this discovery could help solve one of the biggest puzzles in solar physics. "The Sun and Sun-like stars are extremely dynamic systems, characterized by a whole spectrum of fast, explosive events within their magnetic elements. How these explosions are triggered is one of the main frontier areas of modern solar physics," said astronomer David Kuridze, also from NSO and co-lead author of the study.
The constant twisting of the Sun's magnetic field via KHI generates energy that can be suddenly released in the form of an explosion. This discovery could explain how energy accumulates and triggers coronal mass ejections and solar flares, phenomena that can have serious consequences on Earth, including disrupting satellite operations, GPS navigation, power grids, and global communication systems.
Beyond its scientific importance, the researchers also highlighted the aesthetic dimension of the new images. "Perhaps 'magnificent' best describes the aesthetics of the images for us," said Wöger. Kuridze drew interesting parallels with art: "It's interesting that artists have long captured this intuition of fluid dynamics in their works. A famous example is Van Gogh's 'The Starry Night,' where the swirling structures in the sky closely resemble turbulent KHI structures."
He added that "a similar parallel appears in Hokusai's famous woodblock print 'The Great Wave off Kanagawa,' where the curled wave crests echo the iconic shape of KHI folds. This shows how the fundamental geometry of nature is deeply reflected in human art."
