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(Image credit: NASA Goddard)
A hot secret on the sun might be close to being fixed.
For years, researchers have actually been attempting to comprehend why the sun‘s external environment is a lot hotter than its surface area, regardless of being further from the core. Whereas the surface area, or photosphere, is countless degrees Fahrenheit, the external environment is just about 10,000 F(5,500 C).
New information from the National Science Foundation’s Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope(DKIST)in Hawaii– the biggest ground-based solar telescope ever developed — is assisting researchers discover how the sun’s energy is carried through its environment.
A solar
secretScientist formerly kept in mind the severe temperature level of the sun’s corona, along with the supercharged circulation of heated gas, called the solar wind, which streams from the sun at more than 1 million miles per hour (1.6 million km/h), stated Richard Mortona solar physicist and teacher at Northumbria University in the U.K. who led the research study, informed Live Science in an e-mail.
Both procedures require energy, and researchers presumed rolling convection at the sun’s surface area produced the requisite fuel. Problems occurred throughout the very first research studies of this years back.
“It is unclear how this [energy] gets transferred into the atmosphere and solar wind, and how the energy is converted to heat and momentum,” Morton stated.
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In 1942, Swedish plasma physicist (and ultimate Nobel Prize winnerHannes Alfvén recommended magnetic waves might be accountable. These waves, now understood as Alfvén waves, had actually never ever been found in the corona up until now.
An illustration of twisting magnetic waves(inset)exposed by the Inouye Solar Telescope. These upward-traveling waves might be an important component in fixing the secret of why the sun’s corona is so hot. (Image credit: NSF/NSO/AURA/ J. Williams)”This was because the sensitivity of previous instrumentation has not been good enough to resolve the motions of the Alfvén waves,” Morton stated. “Despite this, many numerical experiments and space weather forecasting tools assume that Alfvén waves exist in the corona. However, the properties of the waves they use within the models have been educated guesses.”‘Unprecedented’ observationsDKIST has a 4-meter (13 feet) mirror and an “unprecedented” resolution of the sun, Morton stated, with much “cleaner measurements” (less sound) than any previous solar observatory. In the brand-new research study, researchers utilized the telescope’s Cryogenic Near Infrared Spectropolarimeter (Cryo-NIRSP) to look for the coronal Alfvén waves.
Cryo-NIRSP can chart motions of the corona through images, Morton stated, along with take a look at modifications in the sun’s plasma (superheated gas) through a phenomenon called Doppler shift– the viewed distinction in the frequency of a wave as the observer and the source of the wave approach or far from each other. (A typical, real-life example is the modification in the noise of an ambulance siren as it goes by a pedestrian on the street.)
“Cryo-NIRSP provided the data to enable us to observe the tell-tale signature of the Alfvén waves, which in a plasma like the corona, is a back-and-forth twisting of the magnetic field,” Morton stated. “This appears as an alternating pattern of red and blue Doppler shifts on opposite sides of the magnetic fields. We found these waves were continually present during the time of observation, and given there was nothing particularly special about the region we observed, this implies they are always likely common across the rest of the atmosphere.”
“Maybe most notably,” he continued, “our analysis suggests that waves most likely bring a considerable quantity of energy.”
That is a significant finding, he noted, because astronomers have been debating between solar waves and magnetic reconnection — when magnetic fields on the sun twist together and snap, releasing energy — as the mechanism behind the intense heating in the corona.
While various spacecraft have found evidence that magnetic reconnection is a driver of coronal heating, the new findings from DKIST show that the full picture is more complicated. Solar observatories such as NASA’s Parker Solar Probe and the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter, alongside the fresh data from DKIST, show “both waves and reconnection are happening regularly throughout the Sun’s environment,” Morton said.
“Our research study verifies that the Alfvén waves exist and bring a substantial quantity of energy, possibly comprising a minimum of half the needed energy for warming the corona,” he added. “The precise energy associated with the waves is still challenging to approximate.”
The ratio of magnetic reconnection to Alfvén waves affects not only solar heating but also the light (or more properly, the radiative output) from the sun, as well as the light from stars beyond our solar system. Scientists hope to use the research to understand how planetary systems evolved over the longer term and to make better short-term predictions about solar wind production. “It is hoped that more research studies like the one we have actually released will shed some light on the residential or commercial properties of Alfvén waves to much better notify the designs and enhance forecasts,” he stated.
Elizabeth Howell was personnel press reporter at Space.com in between 2022 and 2024 and a routine factor to Live Science and Space.com in between 2012 and 2022. Elizabeth’s reporting consists of numerous exclusives with the White House, speaking a number of times with the International Space Station, seeing 5 human spaceflight launches on 2 continents, flying parabolic, working inside a spacesuit, and taking part in a simulated Mars objective. Her most current book, “Why Am I Taller?” (ECW Press, 2022) is co-written with astronaut Dave Williams.
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