Balloon-borne telescope reveals magnetic web woven above the Sun’s quiet regions
Sunrise-III observatory detects intricate thread-like magnetic structures in the chromosphere, reshaping understanding of how energy moves through the solar atmosphere
An international team led by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) has uncovered a surprisingly complex network of magnetic structures hidden above regions of the Sun that appear relatively calm. Using the Sunrise-III solar observatory, which floated about 35 kilometres above Earth in the stratosphere during a balloon mission in 2024, scientists detected delicate, thread-like magnetic features woven through the solar atmosphere, apparently shaped by twisting motions on the Sun’s surface.