Before a solar storm races across space and impacts technology on Earth, it starts with an explosive process on the Sun known as magnetic reconnection. Now, observations from NASA’s Parker Solar Probe have uncovered new details about how these types of magnetic events fling particles to dangerous speeds.
On a 2022 solar flyby, Parker Solar
Probe passed in between the Sun and the site of a magnetic reconnection event
in the solar wind, the continual stream of particles and magnetic fields
emitted by the Sun. Since the storm-causing reconnection events happen in the
hard-to-access solar atmosphere, events occurring in the solar wind offer an
opportunity to take direct measurements of particles accelerated by magnetic
reconnection. And
Parker Solar Probe did just that.
Magnetic
reconnection is one of the most important processes in space. Reconnection
occurs when crossed magnetic field lines snap, explosively flinging away nearby
particles at high speeds. This animation illustrates this magnetic explosion on
the Sun, where it can create solar storms and send particles racing across the
solar system.
NASA’s
Conceptual Image Laboratory
Parker Solar Probe observed a
Sun-directed jet of particles made of protons and heavy ions — elements with
extra electrons. But unexpectedly, analysis of the data revealed that protons
and ions were accelerated in different manners. Magnetic reconnection theories
expect these two types of particles to be accelerated in the same manner, but
the new observations showed the protons formed a dispersed beam, like that from
a flashlight, while the heavier ions were directed in a straight line like a
laser beam.
The findings, published March 31 in the Astrophysical Journal, will help scientists refine theoretical models of magnetic
reconnection to better understand how solar storms are powered.
By Mara
Johnson-Groh
NASA’s
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Source: NASA's Parker Solar Probe Finds Explosive Surprises on Sun
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