The solar wind near the Sun, when calm (or 'quiescent'), has small magnetic field changes and aligns with a spiral pattern called the Parker spiral. Earlier studies showed that this calm solar wind, at about 30 times the Sun’s radius, has traits suggesting it carries features of younger solar wind structures. However, in later orbits, when scientists separated the calm solar wind from areas with sudden magnetic field changes (called switchback patches), they found that the calm solar wind’s characteristics were very similar to those of the switchback patches. This suggests that earlier differences might come from the mix of calm wind and switchback patches, which likely originate low in the Sun’s atmosphere (the corona). Measurements from the Parker Solar Probe show that the heating of the solar wind as it travels is the same for both calm and active (non-quiescent) solar wind, within measurement errors. This means that large-scale magnetic fluctuations (switchbacks) don’t affect how the solar wind heats up. Instead, the heating likely comes from smaller-scale interactions in the solar wind’s turbulence, which aren’t influenced by the larger fluctuations.