Mysterious, Swirling Waves Discovered in the Sun – Incredible Speed Defies Explanation

Sun Harmonics

An artistic impression of the high-frequency retrograde (HFR) vorticity waves. These waves appear as swirling motions near the equator of the Sun. The rotation in the north is always anti-symmetric to the rotation in the southern hemisphere. These mysterious waves move in the opposite direction to the sun’s rotation, which is to the right, three times faster then what is allowed by hydrodynamics alone. Credit: NYU Abu Dhabi

Researchers from NYU Abu Dhabi’s (NYUAD) Center for Space Science have discovered a new set of waves in the Sun that, unexpectedly, appear to travel much faster than predicted by theory.

In the study, Discovery of high-frequency-retrograde vorticity waves in the Sun, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, the researchers — led by Research Associate Chris S. Hanson — detailed how they analyzed 25 years of space and ground-based data to detect these waves. The high-frequency retrograde (HFR) waves — which move in the opposite direction of the Sun’s rotation — appear as a pattern of vortices (swirling motions) on the surface of the Sun and move at three times the speed established by current theory.

The interior of the Sun and stars cannot be imaged by conventional astronomy (e.g. optical, x-ray etc.), and scientists rely on interpreting the surface signatures of a variety of waves to image the interiors. These new HFR waves may yet be an important puzzle piece in our understanding of stars.

Complex interactions between other well known waves and magnetism, gravity, or convection could drive the HFR waves at this speed. “If the HFR waves could be attributed to any of these three processes, then the finding would have answered some open questions we still have about the Sun,” said Hanson. “However, these new waves don’t appear to be a result of these processes, and that’s exciting because it leads to a whole new set of questions.”

This research was conducted within NYUAD’s Center for Space Science in collaboration with the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) and New York University, using NYUAD and TIFR’s computational resources. By studying the Sun’s interior dynamics — through the use of waves — scientists can better appreciate the Sun’s potential impact on the Earth and other planets in our solar system.

“The very existence of HFR modes and their origin is a true mystery and may allude to exciting physics at play,” said Shravan Hanasoge, a co-author of the paper. “It has the potential to shed insight on the otherwise unobservable interior of the Sun.”

Reference: “Discovery of high-frequency-retrograde vorticity waves in the Sun” by Chris S. Hanson, Shravan Hanasoge and Katepalli R. Sreenivasan, 24 March 2022, Nature Astronomy.
DOI: 10.1038/s41550-022-01632-z

8 Comments on "Mysterious, Swirling Waves Discovered in the Sun – Incredible Speed Defies Explanation"

  1. The dark matter sphere that co rotates with the sun feeds inward with the phase transition to gaseous state due to lower gravity and higher temperature in the sun. This material bursts out at the poles of the sun cooling and condensing further promoting this circulation. Sunspots are also caused by cooling/condensing dark matter bursting up from below. These flows are what accelerates coronal hole streams. Throughout the corona the incoming dark matter is heated as it is compressed in the gravity well. When the gravity and velocity reach a zero g equivalent the dark matter transitions to gaseous state accelerating dark matter /plasma outward as the solar wind.

    • Tell me that you have no idea about physics or dark matter without telling me you have no idea about physics or dark matter.

  2. Frosted Flake | March 25, 2022 at 3:28 am | Reply

    This ‘What the eF is THAT?’ moment brought to you by SCIENCE.

  3. While not a star, it looks like we can compare a lot of this to the weather patterns on Jupiter, specifically how it has bands that flow against each other generating the massive hurricanes like the great red spot. I suspect these phenomena seen on the sun are just amped up variants of the same albeit harder to see, as the sun is so bright.

  4. BibhutibhusanPatel | March 28, 2022 at 10:43 pm | Reply

    Star Dynamics for this absolute distunguished rotation is well understood.So this is an established phenomena observed in the Sun and likely in stars.But Suprmassiive black hole at the centre of the galaxy is responsible for rèsultant dynamism to cause an acceleration.

  5. BibhutibhusanPatel | March 28, 2022 at 10:48 pm | Reply

    Star Dynamics for this absolute distunguished rotation is well understood.So this is an established phenomena observed in the Sun and likely in stars.But Suprmassiive black hole at the centre of the galaxy is responsible for rèsultant dynamism to cause an acceleration.

    As Ŕotation is a reflection of Galaxies mutual positions.

  6. BibhutibhusanPatel | March 28, 2022 at 10:56 pm | Reply

    Star Dynamics for this absolute distunguished rotation is well understood.So this is an established phenomena observed in the Sun and likely in stars.But Suprmassiive black hole at the centre of the galaxy is responsible for rèsultant dynamism to cause an acceleration.

    As Ŕotation is a reflection of Galaxies mutual positions.
    Different and opposite direction in rotation is unkown,hence dark matter(energy).

  7. BibhutibhusanPatel | March 28, 2022 at 11:07 pm | Reply

    Star Dynamics for this absolute distunguished rotation is well understood.So this is an established phenomena observed in the Sun and likely in stars.But Suprmassiive black hole at the centre of the galaxy is responsible for rèsultant dynamism to cause an acceleration.

    As Ŕotation is a reflection of Galaxies mutual positions.
    Different and opposite direction in rotation is unkown,hence dark matter(energy).

    However,opposite direction is equal in all respect to the normal in case of rotation.

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