Inouye Telescope captures sharpest Sun image revealing instability

Released on August 6, 2026, the highest-resolution visible-light image of the Sun, captured by the Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii, confirms the presence of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI) on the solar surface.

KHI arises when two streams of solar magnetic plasma flow past each other at different speeds, generating waves and swirls. The phenomenon can transport energy and magnetic fields and may even heat the surrounding corona.

Spanning about the Earth’s radius, the false-yellow image, actually taken in deep blue, resolves features as small as a city. It shows smooth tops of evolving solar granules, while flower-like structures at their edges harbor multiple KHI vortices.

Credit for the image goes to NSF, NSO, AURA, MPS, and the Inouye Telescope. Astronomers Robert Nemiroff, Jerry Bonnell, Cecilia Chirenti, and Keighley Rockcliffe described the finding, adding that future studies will investigate how the instability transports energy and magnetic fields and heats the corona.