2010a Highest resolution observations of the quietest Sun

Highest resolution observations made with the new 1.6 m aperture solar tele-scope in Big Bear Solar Observatory during this time of historic inactivity on the Sun reveal new insights into the small-scale dynamics of the Sun’s photo-sphere. The telescope’s unprecedented resolution enabled us to observe that the smallest scale photospheric magnetic field comes in isolated points in the dark intergranular lanes, rather than the predicted continuous sheets confined to the lanes, and the unexpected longevity of the bright points implies a deeper an-choring than predicted. Further, we demonstrated for the first time that the photospheric plasma motion and magnetic fields are in equipartition over a wide dynamic range, and both cascade energy to ever-smaller scales according to clas-sical Kolmogorov turbulence theory. Finally, we discovered tiny jet-like features originating in the dark lanes that surround the ubiquitous granules that charac-terize the solar surface. The tiny jets apparently have sufficient energy to resolve the mystery of why the overlying chromosphere is hotter than the photosphere