Bibcode
DOI
Bonet, J. A.; Márquez, I.; Sánchez Almeida, J.; Cabello, I.; Domingo, V.
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 687, Issue 2, pp. L131-L134.
Advertised on:
11
2008
Journal
Citations
179
Refereed citations
161
Description
We have discovered small whirlpools in the Sun, with a size similar to
terrestrial hurricanes (<~0.5 Mm). The theory of solar convection
predicts them, but they had remained elusive so far. The vortex flows
are created at the downdrafts where the plasma returns to the solar
interior after cooling down, and we detect them because some magnetic
bright points (BPs) follow a logarithmic spiral on their way to being
engulfed by a downdraft. Our disk-center observations show 0.9 ×
10-2 vortexes per Mm2, with a lifetime of the
order of 5 minutes, and with no preferred sense of rotation. They are
not evenly spread out over the surface, but they seem to trace the
supergranulation and the mesogranulation. These observed properties are
strongly biased by our type of measurement, unable to detect vortexes
except when they are engulfing magnetic BPs.