NASA's Parker Solar Probe has captured a first-ever glimpse inside a coronal mass ejection (CME) as it erupted from the sun. The probe's instrument detected turbulent eddies within the CME, which are known as Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities (KHI). This discovery is significant for solar physicists.
Every so often, the sun's simmering magnetic field burps colossal clouds of plasma out into the space beyond. These are called coronal mass ejection s ( CME s). If one CME strikes Earth, for example, the result can be spectacular auroras — and, just-as-spectacular disruptions of electrical grids and satellites. Now, NASA 's Parker Solar Probe has gotten a first-ever peek inside a CME as it erupted from the sun. And what lies inside appears to be a treasure trove for solar physicists .
The probe's visible-light-detecting, Wide-field Imager for Parker Solar Probe (WISPR) instrument caught clear, turbulent eddies within the CME. The eddies are what physicists call Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities (KHI). Physicists think KHI events occur whenever one patch of fast-moving fluid interacts with another. On Earth, KHI occurs in clouds when the wind speed at one end of the cloud is different from that at the other en
NASA Parker Solar Probe Coronal Mass Ejection CME Solar Physicists Kelvin-Helmholtz Instabilities WISPR Space
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