A small NASA space telescope has revealed surprising magnetic braids of super-hot matter in the sun's outer atmosphere, a find that may explain the star's mysteriously hot corona, researchers say.

The discovery, made by NASA's High-Resolution Coronal Imager, or Hi-C, also may lead to better space weather forecasts, the scientists added.

"With potential annual economic impacts of tens to hundreds of billions of dollars domestically during periods of high solar activity, accurate forecasts of the local space weather environment can possibly save billions for power systems, commercial aircraft and a number of other economic sectors," said study author Jonathan Cirtain, who led the Hi-C sun corona mission.

Cirtain,a solar astrophysicist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.,and his team launched the 9.5-inch(24 centimeters) telescope last July on a 10-minute flight just beyond Earth's atmosphere to study the corona, the sun's million-degree outer atmosphere. The telescope snapped 165 photos in stunning detail before parachuting back to Earth. [NASA's Hi-C Photos: Best View Ever of Sun's Corona]

The sun's corona revealed

The surface of the sun is unsurprisingly hot, up to 11,000 degrees Fahrenheit (6,125 degrees Celsius). Bizarrely, however, the corona the outer atmosphere far above the sun's surface is hotter by a thousandfold, even in the absence of solar flares.

Scientists recently found that powerful magnetic waves rippling from below the sun's surface may heat the corona by 2.7 million degrees F (1.5 million degrees C). However, that alone would not account for the corona's ultra-hot temperatures.

Now high-resolution images of the sun's corona support the idea of magnetic braids generating tremendous amounts of heat, possibly enough to explain the readings of up to 10.8 million degrees F (6 million degrees C).

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NASA Telescope Reveals 'Magnetic Braids' in Sun's Atmosphere