New views of Sun reveal stunning plasma ‘raindrops’

By Dean Murray

Jaw-dropping new views of the Sun reveal incredible plasma "raindrops."

Scientists have unveiled the most detailed images ever captured of our star’s mysterious outer atmosphere, thanks to a revolutionary new "coronal adaptive optics" system.

Developed by researchers at the National Solar Observatory (NSO) and the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), the technology removes the blurring effects of Earth’s atmosphere, allowing ground-based telescopes to see the Sun’s corona with unprecedented clarity.

Installed at the Goode Solar Telescope in California, the new system—nicknamed “Cona”—acts like a supercharged autofocus for telescopes, rapidly adjusting a mirror 2,200 times per second to counteract atmospheric turbulence.

The result is breathtaking images and films of solar phenomena, including plasma "raindrops" and swirling magnetic prominences, at resolutions as fine as 63 kilometers.

“These are by far the most detailed observations of this kind, showing features not previously observed,” said Vasyl Yurchyshyn, NJIT-CSTR research professor and co-author of the study published in Nature Astronomy. The images reveal intricate details of coronal rain—cool plasma falling along magnetic field lines—and the rapid, turbulent restructuring of solar prominences.

The Sun’s corona, visible only during total solar eclipses, is millions of degrees hotter than the surface below, and its extreme behavior drives space weather that can affect Earth’s technology. Scientists hope these new high-resolution observations will help solve long-standing mysteries about how the corona is heated and how solar eruptions occur.

“This technological advancement is a game-changer,” said Dirk Schmidt, NSO Adaptive Optics Scientist and lead developer. “There is a lot to discover when you boost your resolution by a factor of ten.”

With coronal adaptive optics now available at the Goode Solar Telescope, researchers are planning to bring the technology to even larger telescopes, promising a new era of discovery in solar physics.