Solar Magnetic Field Braids May Have a Previously Hidden Cause

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The NSF Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) on the island of Maui in Hawai'i provides high-resolution images and data about the Sun.</p><p>It recently took a close look at solar surface vortices to understand their role in the heating of the corona.</p><p>Credit: NSF/NSO/AURAhttps://www.universetoday.com/article_images/NSF-Daniel-K.-Inouye-Solar-Telescope_20260812_020916.jpg" width="1280" />

Scientists using the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) in Hawai'i have found a mechanism occurring on the Sun's surface that they think is heating our star's outer atmosphere.

The process, called a Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability (KHI), could well be the root cause of a phenomenon called flux braiding that builds up and moves around on the Sun and heats the coronasphere.

This discovery may well also explain the fundamental physics of similar activity at other stars.

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