The world's biggest solar telescope caught vortexes on the Sun's surface
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.
Reported by 1 outlet — Ars Technica. See all sources ↓
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. For decades scientists argued the same thing must be happening with plasma on the surface of the Sun, and yet nobody had been able to confirm it.
Read the full report at Ars Technica ↗
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- 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.
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- 1 outlet, average source rating 7.0/10.
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- 7m ago.
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The world's biggest solar telescope caught vortexes on the Sun's surface
Sources1TypeCoverageArs Technica