The Sun's surface is a restless landscape of tiny plasma whirlpools
In short: New images from the world's largest solar telescope reveal microscopic swirling motions on the Sun that were previously invisible. This discovery provides a deeper look at how our star organizes its energy and moves magnetic fields.
Using the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) in Hawaii, researchers captured high-resolution images of the solar photosphere. They identified tiny plasma vortices—some as small as 20 kilometers wide—located at the edges of granules. These granules are large structures (500 to 2,000 kilometers across) that resemble bubbles in a boiling liquid, formed by hot plasma rising from the interior and cooling as it sinks.
The researchers believe these swirling motions are Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities, which occur when two fluids move at different speeds, creating shear forces. These tiny whirlpools may explain how magnetic fields spread through the Sun's atmosphere faster than current models predict and could contribute to the energy released in small solar eruptions called nanoflares.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: David Drew: Swirling Solar Plasma | Thunderbolts
- Also: Tiny vortices discovered on the sun's surface
- Also: The sun is covered in tiny whirlpools we’ve never seen before
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