The world's biggest solar telescope caught vortexes on the Sun's surface
Researchers using the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope have captured images of plasma vortexes on the Sun's surface for the first time. These findings confirm long-standing theories about Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities and may reshape our understanding of solar energy transfer.
Why it matters
Understanding these solar dynamics is crucial for predicting space weather, which can impact satellite communications and power grids on Earth.
Solar swirlies The world’s biggest solar telescope caught vortexes on the Sun’s surface We expected them to be there, but they had previously been too small to see.
3 Credit: NASA/Goddard/SDO Credit: NASA/Goddard/SDO Text settings Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only Learn more Minimize to nav Wherever two fluids slide past each other at different speeds, the boundary between them buckles, then curls, then rolls up into vortexes. It’s called the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, and the physics behind it was worked out in the late 1860s. We know this instability explains why wind causes ripples on the surface of water and clouds shear into a row of curves.
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