Whirlpools Found on the Sun’s Surface for the First Time
This weekend on Astronomy Daily: the Inouye Solar Telescope reveals whirlpools on the Sun’s surface for the first time, a Falcon 9 upper stage carves a fresh crater on the Moon, Voyager 2 pulls off a daring "Big Bang" power swap 21 billion kilometres away, and the LINK spacecraft wins its de-spin battle in the race to save NASA’s Swift. Plus your both-hemispheres guide to the 12 August total solar eclipse and the moonless Perseid peak. In this episode ● (01:20) LEAD — First-ever sighting of Kelvin–Helmholtz vortices on the Sun (Nature, 5 Aug; Inouye Solar Telescope / NSO / MPS) ● (09:00) Falcon 9 upper stage 2025-010D impacts the Moon near Einstein Crater ● (12:15) Voyager 2’s "Big Bang" power swap buys another year of interstellar science ● (15:30) LINK spins down from 9°/s to 1.47°/s — software update next in the Swift rescue ● (18:45) Skywatch: 12 Aug total solar eclipse + Perseid peak — both hemispheres, with eye-safety Links & sources ● Nature: Kuridze et al., "Ubiquitous Kelvin–Helmholtz instabilities driving plasma mixing on the Sun" (5 Aug 2026) ● NSO / NSF and Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research press releases (5 Aug 2026) ● NASA/JPL Voyager blog: "NASA Engineers Help Prolong Voyager 2’s Science Mission" (4 Aug 2026) ● NASA Science Swift blog: LINK stabilisation update; ESA & NASA eclipse pages for 12 Aug 2026
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