New research shows that the sun’s magnetic field is near the surface, not deep within the star. . This overturns decades of scientific thinking that placed the field more than 130,000 miles below the sun’s surface. It also brings us closer to understanding the nature of the sun’s magnetic field, which has been on scientists’ minds since Galileo.
research, and an international team of researchers suggests that the magnetic field actually originates 20,000 miles below the surface. This was discovered after the team performed a series of complex calculations on a NASA supercomputer. It should be noted that these are only preliminary findings and more research is needed to confirm the data.
The Sun’s magnetic field changes in an 11-year cycle. During the strongest part of this cycle, strong winds and sunspots form at the solar equator. here on earth. Previous theories that placed the magnetic field deeper into the sun had a hard time unifying these different solar phenomena. Scientists hope that with further research, they will be able to use this theory not only to explain the creation of solar events, but also to more accurately predict when they will occur.
Every second, 1.5 million tons of solar material are spinning away from the sun, traveling at 100 miles per second. Earth’s magnetic field deflects most of it, but not all. The solar wind, a stream of charged particles, flows at 447 km/s (1 million mph) and, while the magnetic field maintains… pic.twitter.com/40CSNZYesU
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This could lead to more than previous predictions of the next aurora borealis event. The Sun’s powerful magnetic energy is also the source of solar flares and plasma eruptions called coronal mass ejections. When these ejections travel towards Earth, all sorts of bad things happen. This happened in 1859 when a giant geomagnetic storm created the largest solar storm in recorded history.
Here it is It is attributed to the English astronomer Richard Christopher Carrington. A solar flare, which is actually a magnetic explosion on the sun’s surface, briefly outshined the sun and caused an eruption of colorful lights across the planet, such as the aurora borealis. It also strained telegraph cables, shocking operators and burning telegraph paper. It was pretty bad.
Now this was 1859, before the modern use of electricity and computers and all related technology. If something like the Carrington Incident happened today, . The X-rays and ultraviolet rays emitted would interfere with electronics, radio and satellite signals. The event would cause a solar radiation storm that would be fatal for astronauts not fully equipped with protective gear.
This would also cause coronal mass to be ejected to collide against the Earth’s magnetic field , mobile phone satellites, modern cars and even airplanes. As a result, global power outages can last for months. Last month’s small (relatively speaking) storm and it was no Carrington-sized event. Even worse? We definitely owe it to you to make it happen. It’s basically a ticking time bomb.
Thus, these findings could theoretically be used to develop new early warning methods for large-scale solar flares hitting Earth. Whenever there is a hurricane warning etc. Research has already demonstrated interesting connections between sunspots and the sun’s magnetic activity.
“We still don’t understand the sun well enough to make accurate predictions about solar weather,” said lead study author Geoffrey Vasil of the University of Edinburgh. . These new findings “will be an important step towards finally solving” this mysterious process. of Northwestern University.
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