“A Sun Question”

The sun‘s surface and atmosphere are endlessly dynamic, with magnetic lines, plasma, and convection creating a constant churn. In this photo by astrophotographer Eduardo Schaberger Poupeau, a curving question-mark-like filament appears above the sun’s surface. Even with decades of high-resolution data from recent solar probes, we struggle to understand the complex physics that feed structures like these. (Image credit: E. Poupeau; via 2023 Astronomy POTY)