Images published in August 2026 from the Inouye Solar Telescope revealed plasma whirlpools on the Sun as small as 25 kilometres across—the first direct sighting in the photosphere of the same wave-curling instability seen in breaking ocean swells and Jupiter’s atmosphere, likely churning unseen across our star for billions of years.
The curls in the new solar image look like waves breaking against a shore. There is no water,…
