The Sharpest Image Ever Taken of the Sun Reveals a Hidden Phenomenon

史上最清晰的太阳照片揭示了一个隐藏现象

For decades, scientists had theorized that the sun’s surface must be crisscrossed by tiny plasma vortices, generated by the interaction between its intense magnetic fields and the constantly flowing superheated material. This week, the world’s most powerful solar telescope has just confirmed this.

几十年来，科学家们一直推测太阳表面必然纵横交错着微小的等离子体涡旋，这些涡旋是由其强磁场与不断流动的超高温物质相互作用而产生的。本周，世界上最强大的太阳望远镜刚刚证实了这一点。

The latest image captured by the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, located at the summit of Haleakalā volcano in Hawaii, shows for the first time evidence of the so-called Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, a physical phenomenon first predicted more than a century ago.

位于夏威夷哈雷阿卡拉火山顶峰的丹尼尔·井上太阳望远镜（Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope）所拍摄的最新图像，首次展示了所谓的“开尔文-亥姆霍兹不稳定性”（Kelvin-Helmholtz instability）的证据，这是一种早在一百多年前就被预测到的物理现象。

The image, shared by NASA, is not the most spectacular view of the sun, but it is one of the closest to how the human eye would see it if it could withstand the intense brightness. Unlike the famous photographs in shades of blue, green, or orange captured by space observatories using ultraviolet or X-ray radiation—wavelengths invisible to us—this image was captured in visible light. As a result, it reveals a landscape reminiscent of petals, swirls, and folds on the star’s surface.

NASA 分享的这张照片虽然不是太阳最壮观的景象，但它最接近人眼在能够承受其强烈亮度的情况下所看到的真实模样。与太空观测站利用紫外线或 X 射线（我们肉眼不可见的波长）拍摄的那些著名的蓝色、绿色或橙色照片不同，这张照片是在可见光下拍摄的。因此，它呈现出一种让人联想到太阳表面花瓣、漩涡和褶皱的景观。

A full image of a section of the sun’s surface, viewed with unprecedented resolution in visible light. Courtesy of NSA/NSO/AURA/MPS/Inouye Tel

太阳表面局部全景图，以可见光下前所未有的分辨率呈现。图片来源：NSA/NSO/AURA/MPS/Inouye Tel

What Exactly Does This Show?

这张照片到底展示了什么？

The “petals” appearing in the image are generated by the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. This occurs when two fluid currents move at different speeds. The friction between the two causes the boundary to ripple and form swirling patterns. The Kelvin-Helmholtz instability is not unique to the sun. It also occurs on Earth, for example, when wind blows over water or in clouds.

图像中出现的“花瓣”是由开尔文-亥姆霍兹不稳定性产生的。当两股流体以不同的速度移动时，就会发生这种现象。两者之间的摩擦导致边界产生涟漪并形成漩涡状图案。开尔文-亥姆霍兹不稳定性并非太阳所独有。它在地球上也同样存在，例如当风吹过水面或在云层中时。

In the sun, the fluids are plasma streams—a state of matter in which gas is so hot that its atoms lose electrons. Scientists expected that, in certain regions of the sun, these plasma streams would behave just like two streams of air or water colliding with each other, forming vortices.

在太阳上，这些流体是等离子体流——这是一种物质状态，其中的气体温度极高，以至于原子失去了电子。科学家们预料到，在太阳的某些区域，这些等离子体流的行为就像两股空气或水流相互碰撞一样，从而形成涡旋。

Until now, visible-light telescopes provided a seemingly smooth view of the sun. Thanks to the techniques used by the Inouye telescope, scientists were able to observe what is happening on its surface in much greater detail. Small vortices, barely a few dozen kilometers in diameter, are constantly forming and disappearing. These structures have always been there. We have only recently learned how to visualize them.

在此之前，可见光望远镜所呈现的太阳表面看起来似乎是平滑的。得益于井上望远镜所采用的技术，科学家们得以更详细地观察太阳表面正在发生的事情。直径仅几十公里的微小涡旋在不断地形成和消失。这些结构一直存在，只是我们最近才学会如何将它们可视化。

According to NASA, this image spans approximately the Earth’s radius and is the highest-resolution image available in visible light. The unprecedented details will provide a better understanding of how the sun transfers its energy to outer regions and how it alters the temperature of its solar corona. The solar corona is of great scientific interest, as it is the source of coronal mass ejections—the phenomena responsible for geomagnetic storms that threaten the world’s electronic systems.

据 NASA 称，这张图像覆盖的范围大约相当于地球的半径，是目前可见光下分辨率最高的图像。这些前所未有的细节将有助于我们更好地理解太阳如何将其能量传递到外部区域，以及它如何改变太阳日冕的温度。太阳日冕具有重大的科学研究价值，因为它是日冕物质抛射的源头——这种现象是威胁全球电子系统的地磁暴的罪魁祸首。

This story originally appeared in WIRED en Español and has been translated from Spanish.

本文最初发表于《连线》西班牙语版，由西班牙语翻译而来。