Sun reveals 20-kilometer plasma whirlpools linked to corona heating mystery
TL;DR
New high-resolution images from the NSF’s Inouye Solar Telescope show 20-km-wide plasma vortices at the edges of magnetic flux on the Sun’s surface, caused by Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. These swirling motions could braid magnetic fields and help channel energy from the surface into the corona, offering a potential piece of the coronal-heating puzzle, but the authors caution they have not quantified the energy contribution and call for independent confirmation with even more powerful instruments.
- The highest-resolution images ever taken of the Sun's surface revealed whirlpools of plasma only 20 kilometres wide — the same instability that curls ocean waves and Jupiter's clouds — and it may explain why the Sun's outer atmosphere runs a million degre Space Daily
- 2026 August 6 – New Sharpest Image of the Sun Uncovers Instability NASA (.gov)
- NSF Inouye Solar Telescope Enables Major Discovery of a Hidden Solar Process - NSO NSO - National Solar Observatory
- Most detailed images ever taken of sun's surface revealed: "Major step forward" CBS News
- Ubiquitous Kelvin–Helmholtz instabilities driving plasma mixing on the Sun Nature
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