Inouye telescope reveals Kelvin-Helmholtz vortices on the sun

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The Inouye solar telescope on Haleakalā captured the highest spatial resolution images yet of a magnetically active region near a sun spot, revealing golden bands and small whirlpool-like vortices under 20 km across. Scientists identified these features as Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities, a first confirmed detection on the sun, and say the vortices can braid magnetic field lines and cascade energy to small scales that dissipate as heat. The finding, published in Nature, could help explain why the sun's corona reaches millions of degrees and improve understanding of flares and coronal mass ejections that affect satellites and power systems.

New images show small KH vortices may drive coronal heating