What Happens if You Keep Zooming Into the Sun

The sharpest-ever images of the Sun, published in August 2026, revealed plasma vortices as small as about 20 kilometres across—structures no previous telescope could resolve. They may help twist and transport magnetic energy through the solar atmosphere, potentially contributing to the still-unsolved mystery of why the corona is far hotter than the surface.

The sharpest view yet made of the Sun’s visible surface does not look like a smoother version of an old solar photograph. It looks like a different physical landscape. Along the borders of small magnetic structures, the previously blurred edge breaks into dark stripes and curling forms. In time-lapse sequences, some roll like the crest of an ocean wave. The smallest approach the size of a city. An international team says those forms are the firs…

What Happens if You Keep Zooming Into the Sun

Check out the highest resolution video of the sun’s surface ever recorded. 0:00 Zooming Into the Sun 0:05 The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope 0:13 Kelvin-Helmholtz Instabilities Explained 0:22 Predicting Space Weather and Protecting Earth 1:01 Advanced Computer Simulations 1:12 Mining the Moon for Solar Wind Resources Video Credits: Host: Jesse Orrall Scripted by: Jesse Orrall Producer: Jesse Orrall Camera:NSF/NSO/AURA/MPS/HAO/Getty/Nasa Video …