2026年8月5日 / 美国东部时间晚上8:55 / 哥伦比亚广播公司/美联社报道
科学家们捕捉到了迄今为止最精细的太阳表面图像，展现出一个奇特且充满动态变化的外观。
直接用肉眼直视太阳是非常危险的，必须使用合适的护具。但研究人员借助位于夏威夷毛伊岛的美国国家科学基金会丹尼尔·K·井上太阳望远镜，得以近距离观测到这颗炽热恒星的表面。
科学家最初拍摄这些图像另有目的：对望远镜进行微调并测试其性能极限。但当他们查看拍摄结果时，意识到自己以前所未有的最高分辨率拍到了太阳明亮的外层大气。
更重要的是，他们还看到了奇特的羽毛状图案在太阳表面层层涟漪般扩散。
美国国家科学基金会国家太阳天文台在一份新闻稿中表示：“这些图像展现了前所未见的太阳地貌，在磁场区域的边缘处处可见微小尺度的动态漩涡。”
“这让我想起了著名画作，比如梵高《星月夜》中旋转的天空，”未参与这项新研究的斯坦福大学太阳物理学家陈如竹说道。
研究人员观察到，太阳表面因磁化等离子体块以不同速度相互移动而产生不稳定波纹——类似阵风掠过水面时激起的波浪。这一广为人知的现象被称为开尔文-亥姆霍兹不稳定性（KHI），可用来解释流体的运动规律。
这种现象在地球以及木星、土星等其他行星上都曾被观测到，但“这是人类首次在太阳表面如此高的精度下观测到该现象”，该研究的合著者、国家太阳天文台的弗里德里希·沃格尔说道。
国家太阳天文台副主任戴维·博 Bolts 博士表示，这项结合数值模拟分析得出的发现，“是我们理解太阳与恒星等离子体动态与演化过程的重要一步，也将为未来的科学发现奠定基础”。
这项研究成果已于周三发表在《自然》期刊上。
科学家们对太阳内部运作机制的研究，旨在更好地追踪被称为日冕物质抛射的大规模能量爆发，这类抛射可能会冲向地球。当这些抛射抵达地球时，会引发太阳风暴，可能干扰GPS通信，并产生绚丽的极光。
“要了解影响地球的动态空间天气，我们必须观测驱动这些现象的微小尺度过程，”美国国家科学基金会国家太阳天文台项目负责人杰奎琳·基恩博士说道，“数十年来，观测到如此微小尺度的漩涡一直是遥不可及的目标。通过搭配四米口径的巨型镜面与最先进的光学系统和仪器，井上太阳望远镜首次获得了足够的分辨率，得以展现这些超细细节，实现了曾经遥不可及的科学发现。”
Most detailed images ever taken of sun’s surface revealed: “Major step forward”
August 5, 2026 / 8:55 PM EDT / CBS/AP
Scientists have captured images of the sun’s surface in the finest detail yet, revealing a strange and dynamic facade.
It’s dangerous to look directly at the sun without proper eye protection. But researchers were able to peek at its scorching surface with the help of the National Science Foundation’s Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, located on the island of Maui in Hawaii.
Scientists originally took the images for a different reason: to fine-tune and test the limits of the telescope. But when they looked at the results, they realized they’d photographed the sun’s bright outer shell at higher resolution than ever before.
What’s more, they saw strange feathery patterns rippling across the surface.
The images “reveal a solar landscape unlike any that had been seen before, uncovering small-scale and dynamic swirls everywhere at the edges of magnetic areas,” the NSF’s National Solar Observatory said in a news release.
This undated image provided by the NSF National Solar Observatory on Aug. 3, 2026, shows the sun’s surface. National Science Foundation National Solar Observatory via AP
“That reminds me of famous paintings, like the swirling skies in Van Gogh’s Starry Night,” said solar physicist Ruizhu Chen with Stanford University, who was not involved with the new research.
Researchers saw ripples of instability on the sun’s surface caused by bits of magnetized plasma moving past each other at different speeds — similar to waves that stir when a gust of wind blows over water. It’s a well-known phenomenon called the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI) that guides how fluids move.
This has been glimpsed on Earth and other planets like Jupiter and Saturn, but “it has not been observed ever at that level on the solar surface,” according to study co-author Friedrich Wöger with the National Solar Observatory.
Dr. David Boboltz, deputy director at the National Solar Observatory, said the discovery, “backed up by analysis of numerical simulations, is a major step forward in our understanding of the dynamics and evolution of solar and stellar plasma, and will serve as a basis for future discoveries.”
The findings were published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
Scientists are curious about the sun’s inner workings to better track massive bursts of energy called coronal mass ejections that can hurl toward Earth. When they hit, they can trigger solar storms, potentially scrambling GPS communications and producing colorful auroras.
“To understand the dynamic space weather that affects Earth, we have to see the small-scale processes driving it,” said Dr. Jacqueline Keane, NSF program director for the National Solar Observatory. “For decades, seeing these vortices at such tiny scales remained elusive. By pairing a massive four-meter mirror with state-of-the-art optics and instruments, the NSF Inouye Solar Telescope delivers the resolving power needed to reveal these ultrafine details for the first time, enabling discoveries that were once beyond our reach.”
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