Balloon-borne telescope reveals twisted magnetic web above the Sun's quiet regions

Overview

Updated Yesterday

The Sun's quiet regions hide a complex magnetic world. A balloon-borne telescope floating 35 kilometers above Earth has revealed thread-like magnetic structures woven through the solar atmosphere above areas that look featureless from below.

The discovery comes from Sunrise-III, a 1-meter telescope that flew in 2024. From 150 million kilometers away it resolved structures just 50 kilometers across, and the data may help explain why the Sun's outer atmosphere burns millions of degrees hotter than its surface.

Why it matters

It pinpoints how magnetic structures may funnel energy into the Sun's scorching outer atmosphere, a puzzle that has stood for 80 years.

Questions about this story

Free account needed to ask — your question is kept and asked for you right after sign-up. Answers are public.

No questions yet — be the first to ask.

Key Indicators

200+ TB

Solar data collected

Captured over a 6.5-day flight in the stratosphere.

50 km

Smallest structures resolved

Recorded from roughly 150 million kilometers away.

35 km

Balloon flight altitude

High enough to avoid most atmospheric turbulence that blurs ground telescopes.

6.5 days

Flight duration

Time the observatory spent observing before touchdown.

Voices

Curated perspectives — historical figures and your fellow readers.

Ever wondered what historical figures would say about today's headlines?

People Involved

Masahito Kubo

Lead author of the Sunrise-III/SCIP study

Lead author of the October 2026 finding published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters

Sami K. Solanki

Director of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, study co-author

Co-author of the October 2026 study and contributor to the SCIP instrument

Tahar Amari

CNRS research director, Center for Theoretical Physics at École Polytechnique

Led the 2025 study confirming twisted flux ropes across the Sun

Organizations Involved

National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ)

National research institute

Led the research team and developed the SCIP instrument

Japan's national center for astronomical research, headquartered in Mitaka, Tokyo.

Sunrise-III Consortium

International research collaboration

Built and operated the balloon-borne solar observatory

An international project built around a 1-meter telescope carried by a high-altitude balloon.

Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research

Research Institute

Co-developed the SCIP instrument and co-authored the study

German solar and planetary research institute based in Göttingen.

Timeline

2015 October 2026

4 events Latest: Yesterday

Tap a bar to jump to that date

October 2026
Quiet-Sun magnetic web reported
Latest Publication

NAOJ-led team publishes findings in The Astrophysical Journal Letters on thread-like magnetic structures above quiet Sun regions.
Yesterday
April 2025
Twisted flux ropes confirmed across the Sun
Research

CNRS-led study shows twisted magnetic flux ropes are omnipresent, even in quiet regions, and carry energy for heating.
April 30th, 2025
2024
Sunrise-III balloon mission flies
Mission

1-meter telescope spends 6.5 days in the stratosphere, collecting 200+ terabytes of solar data.
2024
2015
Twisted flux ropes predicted in quiet Sun
Research

Numerical simulations published in Nature predict twisted magnetic flux ropes form across the Sun, including in quiet regions.
2015

Scenarios

Ground observatories confirm the twisted magnetic web

Likely Resolves by End of 2028

Discussed by: R. Ishikawa and colleagues at NAOJ; the broader solar physics community using DKIST and Solar Orbiter

The Sunrise-III team notes the thread-like structures appear in simulations and await confirmation at higher resolution. The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii and the European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter can observe the chromosphere with finer detail. A peer-reviewed study reporting matching structures would validate the finding across independent instruments.

Quiet-region magnetic web tied to coronal heating

Possible Resolves by End of 2029

Discussed by: The Sunrise-III team and solar physicists studying the coronal heating problem

The magnetic web may explain how energy generated by motions near the solar surface is transferred into higher atmospheric layers. A follow-up analysis would need to quantify energy transport from the chromospheric structures into the corona and attribute measurable heating to them. Related work by Amari's group already shows twisted flux ropes carry enough energy to power small eruptions and heat the atmosphere.

Successor balloon mission approved

Unlikely Resolves by End of 2028

Discussed by: Space agencies and the Sunrise consortium partners (JAXA, DLR, NASA, Spanish institutions)

The 2024 flight carried three instruments and returned more than 200 terabytes of data, demonstrating the scientific yield of stratospheric solar observation. A follow-up mission would need formal funding approval from a participating space agency, with chromospheric magnetic field measurement as a stated goal. The field's momentum, including observations from Solar Orbiter and DKIST, supports continued investment.

Historical Context

3 moments from history that rhyme with this story — and how they unfolded.

1940s

The coronal heating problem (mid-20th century)

Astronomers found the Sun's corona, its outermost atmosphere, reaches millions of degrees Celsius while the visible surface below sits at roughly 5,500 degrees. The farther you go from the Sun's heat source, the hotter it gets, a contradiction no spacecraft or theory has fully resolved.

Then

Researchers proposed magnetic fields as the energy channel, but lacked instruments to test it in the chromosphere.

Now

Eight decades later, the puzzle remains open, driving missions like Sunrise-III, Solar Orbiter, and DKIST.

Why this matters now

The magnetic web discovered by Sunrise-III is a candidate energy pathway from the surface to the corona, directly addressing this long-standing puzzle.

2015 and 2025

Twisted flux rope prediction and confirmation (2015, 2025)

In 2015, Tahar Amari's team predicted in Nature that twisted magnetic flux ropes form across the Sun, including in quiet regions. A 2025 study confirmed them observationally using Hinode satellite data, showing the ropes appear at the same altitude as small heating events called campfires and carry enough energy to power them.

Then

The confirmation established twisted structures as a viable mechanism for heating quiet regions.

Now

It linked quiet-region eruptions to the same physics as solar flares in active regions.

Why this matters now

Sunrise-III observed the chromospheric counterpart of these structures, adding height-resolved magnetic field measurements to the picture.

2022

Complex coronal web driving the slow solar wind (2022)

Observations from Solar Orbiter's Extreme Ultraviolet Imager revealed a spatially complex web of magnetized plasma structures in the corona, showing how structured slow solar wind emerges from regions intermingled with coronal holes.

Then

The finding connected fine-scale coronal structure to the solar wind flowing past Earth.

Now

It reinforced the view that the Sun's atmosphere is threaded with small-scale magnetic structure rather than smooth fields.

Why this matters now

The Sunrise-III magnetic web extends this picture down into the chromosphere, the layer where the structuring originates.