Tag Archive for 'Photosphere'

This ALMA image shows the red supergiant star Betelgeuse. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / Dent et al.

ALMA Reveals Betelgeuse’s Fiery, Long-Lived Hot Spots

Aug 24, 2026 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array have captured stunning new images of the surface of Betelgeuse, the famous red supergiant...

The highest-resolution image of the Sun’s surface (photosphere) ever captured, taken at 416 nm by the Inouye Solar Telescope; it reveals deformed boundaries of magnetic elements and ultra-fine scale stripes, both associated with Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. Image credit: NSF / NSO / AURA / MPS.

Inouye Solar Telescope Discovers Hidden Plasma Vortices on Sun

Aug 7, 2026 by News Staff

Astronomers using the 4-m Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii have detected tiny plasma vortices on the Sun’s surface (photosphere) for the first...

Overview of the impulsive phase of an M-class solar flare, observed by ESA’s Solar Orbiter. Image credit: ESA / Solar Orbiter / Chitta et al., doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202557253.

Magnetic Avalanches Ignite Solar Flares, New Solar Orbiter Observations Reveal

Jan 21, 2026 by News Staff

New high-resolution observations by ESA’s Solar Orbiter mission show that solar flares are driven by cascading magnetic reconnection events, unleashing...

Flaring, active regions of the Sun are highlighted in this image combining observations from several telescopes. High-energy X-rays from NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) are shown in blue; low-energy X-rays from Japan’s Hinode spacecraft are green; and extreme ultraviolet light from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is yellow and red. All three telescopes captured their solar images around the same time on April 29, 2015. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / GSFC / JAXA.

Source of Sunquakes is Submerged beneath Solar Surface, Study Shows

Jan 5, 2021 by News Staff

Ultra-impulsive acoustic emission from a solar flare recently detected by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) indicated submersion of its source...

An artist’s impression of the atmosphere of Antares. As seen with the naked eye (up until the photosphere), Antares is around 700 times larger than our sun, big enough to fill the Solar System beyond the orbit of Mars (Solar System scale shown for comparison). But ALMA and VLA showed that its atmosphere, including the lower and upper chromosphere and wind zones, reaches out 12 times farther than that. Image credit: NRAO / AUI / NSF / S. Dagnello.

Radio Telescopes Reveal Lukewarm Atmosphere of Nearby Red Supergiant Star Antares

Jul 3, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and NSF’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) have created the most detailed...

Giant Starspots May Explain Bizarre Dimming of Betelgeuse

Jun 30, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new paper published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters points to the changes in the photosphere of the red supergiant star Betelgeuse as the source...

This colorful image shows the sky around the bright pair of stars π1 Gruis (center-right, very red) and π2 Gruis (center-left, bluish-white). Just right of center the bright spiral galaxy IC 5201 is also visible and many other fainter galaxies are scattered across this wide-field image from the Digitized Sky Survey 2. Image credit: ESO / Digitized Sky Survey 2 / Davide De Martin.

Astronomers Observe Huge ‘Granules’ on Surface of Red Giant Star

Dec 29, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of scientists led by ESO astronomer Claudia Paladini has directly observed granules — patterns of convection currents in the...