All articles tagged with #kelvin helmholtz
Observations from Hawaii's 4-meter solar telescope reveal Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities in the Sun's photosphere, driving transport and mixing of plasma; a MURaM simulation corroborates that these instabilities help shuffle plasma in the Sun's surface layer.
Researchers using MAVEN and Tianwen-1 show that solar wind drives Kelvin-Helmholtz waves at Mars’ atmospheric boundary, creating giant waves that strip atmospheric particles into space. This effect is uneven around the planet and depends on the solar wind's electric field, offering a key explanation for Mars’ historic atmosphere loss and implications for other unmagnetized worlds.
Fusion barely powers the Sun; its gravity continuously compresses the core, heating it just enough to keep fusion in a self-regulating balance with hydrostatic equilibrium. If fusion stopped, the Kelvin-Helmholtz mechanism would let the Sun slowly shrink and release heat, keeping it shining far longer as a natural thermostat with no moving parts. The Sun actually heats up as it loses energy, and internal changes propagate extremely slowly. Part 3 will trace a photon’s 100,000-year journey out of the Sun.