The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii captured thousands of tiny swirls on the Sun for the first time, researchers reported. The observations offer the highest-resolution images ever recorded of the solar surface and confirm a physical phenomenon predicted for decades.
The visible surface of the Sun features convection cells created by rising columns of interior heat that cool and descend. Using the Hawaii facility, considered the world's most powerful solar telescope, scientists observed miniature whirlpools rotating around the boundaries of magnetic fields.
These structures are known as Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities, or KHI. Solar physicist David Kuridze of the United States National Solar Observatory told ScienceAlert that researchers were astonished by the detailed activity and unexpected ubiquity of the swirls across the magnetic surface.
Observation near a solar sunspot
Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities appear as spiral patterns when two fluids slide past each other at different speeds, a process also observed in ocean waves and cloud formations. Although researchers suspected turbulent solar plasma contained these structures, previous instruments lacked the resolution to detect them.
In April 2025, the telescope targeted a magnetically active region near a sunspot to record moving plasma. Data analysis showed the swirls recurring in multiple areas, indicating that the vortices are a regular feature of the Sun rather than isolated events.
Computer models developed by researchers reproduced the precise behavior observed by the telescope. Solar physicist Friedrich Wöger of the National Solar Observatory told ScienceAlert that proving the identity of the swirls required both unprecedented spatial resolution and detailed numerical computer simulations.
Predicting solar space weather
Kuridze explained that generating Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities in a real physical system requires a delicate balance between competing physical forces. He noted that finding those conditions across magnetic boundaries came as a surprise.
Scientists believe the small swirls transport energy through the solar atmosphere by mixing plasma and magnetic fields. This mechanism could clarify why the outer atmosphere of the Sun is significantly hotter than expected and how solar flares develop.
Wöger emphasized that modern technological infrastructure remains vulnerable to space weather. He stated that predicting major solar disturbances requires understanding the small physical processes that drive them.
The observation findings were published in the scientific journal Nature.
