World’s most powerful solar telescope sees incredible coronal loops on the sun

The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope has captured the smallest magnetic loops ever seen in the sun’s corona, measuring as little as 13 miles wide. Observed after an X-class solar flare in August 2024, these tiny loops may be fundamental to the magnetic processes that power the sun’s most powerful flares. Scientists say this breakthrough lets them study the sun at previously unseen scales, potentially resolving individual loops for the first time, Space.com has reported. The findings were published Aug. 25 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. However, proposed U.S. budget cuts could threaten the telescope’s future and the solar research it supports.