So when we look back over the centuries we see that doctrines of the interpretation of nature, which were held as sound and good for their time, fell from honor when faced with the light of some new scientific theory.
Very high resolution images by the Swedish Solar Telescope have now revealed that the solar surface has a three-dimentional nature. Some of these images were published in the October 2003 issue of Sky and Telescope. Tom Berger of the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics lab presented this work at the June meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Solar Physics Division. These images reveal that the solar surface is not simply composed of clouds hovering about, but rather, has a clear three-dimensional appearance which evolves in a manner reflecting "solar hills, valleys and canyons". Solar granulations appear to be puffy hills billowing upwards. This presents strong evidence that the sun does indeed possess a distinct surface with surface tension, a clear property of the liquid state.