Scientists have found the possible origin of the sun‘s magnetic field, and it’s not where they thought it was.
The discovery, made using complex computer simulations, suggests that the Sun’s magnetic field arises from instabilities in the plasma in the outer layers of the Sun’s surface, rather than deep within the star, as researchers previously thought.
If the findings hold true, their discovery could give scientists a better chance of predicting solar flares and storms that could cause power outages. paralyze the internet and even send satellites tumbling towards Earth. The researchers revealed their findings in a study published May 22 in the journal Nature.
“I think this result could be controversial,” co-author Keaton Burnsa researcher at MIT, said in a statement. “Most of the community has focused on finding dynamo action deep within the Sun. Now we show that another mechanism exists that seems to fit better with observations.”
The sun is a giant ball of plasma whose charged ions swirl around to create powerful energy magnetic fields. This region of swirling, flowing plasma, known as the ‘convective zone’, encompasses the upper third of the Sun’s radius and extends from the surface to about 200,000 kilometers below the surface.
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Magnetic field lines cannot cross, so sometimes these fields form kinks before suddenly snapping – which in turn launches bursts of radiation that we solar flares or huge plumes of solar material coronal mass ejections (CMEs) into space. Once launched, CMEs travel at speeds of millions of miles per hour, sweeping up charged particles from the solar wind and forming a giant, combined wave front that, if directed toward Earth, can break. cause geomagnetic storms above our planet.
But researchers didn’t know exactly where most of the sun’s magnetism comes from. Previously, scientists have tried to work this out using 3D computer simulations to map the plasma flow, but these models were usually too simple.
“These simulations require millions of hours at national supercomputing facilities, but what they produce is nowhere near as turbulent as the actual sun,” Burns said.
For the new study, the researchers instead turned to data from a field known as helioseismology, which uses observations of vibrations rippling across the sun’s outer surface to infer the structure within.
The researchers created their model using algorithms of these surface vibrations, and the results suggested that changes in the plasma flow over the top 5% to 10% of the Sun’s surface most closely matched the magnetic fields seen from outside. When they added possible effects from the Sun’s deeper layers to the simulation, the image became cloudier and no longer matched the Sun’s observed magnetic field.
‘The features we see when we look at the sun, such as the corona that many people saw during the sun recent solar eclipseSunspots and solar flares are all associated with the sun’s magnetic field,” Burns said. ‘We show that isolated disturbances near the Sun’s surface, far from the deeper layers, can grow over time and potentially produce the magnetic structures we see. “
By further developing their model, the researchers hope to better understand and ultimately predict solar storms. Solar activity rises and falls on a roughly eleven-year cycle, with intense solar flares and CMEs much more likely to occur during the peak period known as solar maximum. Scientists think we can do that solar maximum has already been reached of the current cycle, and that this period could be more intense than initially predicted
The increased activity has created waves of high-energy plasma X-ray eruptions that crash into Earth’s magnetic fields, knocking down and triggering Starlink satellites radio blackouts and aurorae as far south as possible Pennsylvania, Iowa and Oregon.