For decades, scientists theorized that the sun’s surface is crisscrossed by tiny plasma vortices, generated by its magnetic fields interacting with superheated material. Now, the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope has confirmed this theory.

The latest image taken by the telescope shows for the first time evidence of Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, a phenomenon that occurs when two fluid currents move at different speeds. The friction between them causes swirling patterns reminiscent of petals on the sun’s surface.

This visible-light image provides a closer look to how the human eye would see it if it could withstand the intense brightness, unlike blue or green photographs captured using ultraviolet or X-ray radiation. Small vortices, barely a few dozen kilometers in diameter, are constantly forming and disappearing on the sun’s surface.

Until now, visible-light telescopes provided a seemingly smooth view of the sun. The Inouye telescope’s techniques allowed scientists to observe what is happening on its surface in much greater detail. These structures have always been there; we just learned how to visualize them.

The highest-resolution image available in visible light spans approximately Earth’s radius and will provide better understanding of how the sun transfers energy to outer regions, altering the temperature of its solar corona. The corona is a source of coronal mass ejections responsible for geomagnetic storms threatening electronic systems worldwide.