kelvin-helmholtz
Latest
Tubular waves are, like, totally common in space
"Surfer" tube-shaped waves are created when a speedy fluid, like wind, moves over a sluggish one, like water. These so-called Kelvin-Helmholtz waves occur everywhere in the universe, as you can see in the image of Saturn's upper atmosphere, above. They also happen when solar winds strike the Earth's protective magnetosphere, and researchers now believe that they occur much more often there than we thought. Not only that, but they might cause the magnetosphere to be charged with plasma, affecting how it works to protect life on our planet from radiation.
