โ๏ธ Sharpest-Ever Sun Images Reveal Tiny Plasma Whirlpools Scientists Have Chased for Decades
The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Maui just captured record-breaking images of the Sun's surface, revealing plasma whirlpools as small as 20 kilometers wide swirling near magnetic hotspots. The vortices form from Kelvin-Helmholtz instability โ the same physics that shapes waves on windy lakes and Jupiter's storms โ and were published in Nature this August. These mini-tornadoes may help explain why the Sun's corona is millions of degrees hotter than its surface, one of solar physics' biggest open questions. Could spinning plasma finally crack the coronal heating mystery?
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