Web-Like Plasma Structures That Expel Particles From the Sun Have Been Found

A research team comprising specialists from NASA, the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, and the Southwest Research Institute has discovered plasma structures that are web-like within the middle corona of the sun. SciTechDaily reports how this was found through an innovative method of observation that involved the imaging of the said corona with UV wavelengths.

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Astronomers Have Been Monitoring the Corona Since 1995

Since 1995, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been monitoring the corona through the Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) that is on the ESA and NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory spacecraft. This has been consistently monitored in order to monitor weather conditions across space that could affect earth. The Tech Explorist, however, reports that there are blind spots within the instrument that inhibit specialists from observing the middle corona, which is the origin of solar wind.

The astronomer's recent findings were included in the Nature Astronomy publication. The Tech Explorist notes how such results can help in understanding the origins of solar winds and their interaction with the entire solar system.

Principal scientist and study author Dr. Dan Seaton expresses how the solar wind's outflow has been established since the 1950s. With its evolution, it may regulate space weather and impact other things such as satellites, astronauts, and power grids. Dr. Seaton further notes, however, that the structure and origin of such winds are still quite mysterious. Though specialists have basic knowledge regarding these processes, they were not able to generate similar observations in the past. Hence, they had to move on despite the information gap.

What's in the Sun's Middle Corona?

Rather than pointing the instrument directly at the sun and performing UV monitoring for a month, the astronomers suggested the use of a different instrument, namely the SUVI (Solar Ultraviolet Imager) on NOAA's GOES (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites), to point at one of the sun's sides.

In the center part of the sun's corona, the astronomers observed the presence of plasma formations that are both extended and web-like. Through interactions with the said structures, particles get expelled from the sun right into outer space. The plasma structures also release the magnetic energy that they store.

Dr. Seaton notes how exciting these results were since, for the first time, the researchers were able to have observations of optimal quality that synchronized prior observations of the sun and the heliosphere. He thinks that such observations can help in generating more comprehensive data and exciting findings from missions such as PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere). PUNCH is a NASA mission that is SwRI-led that aims to image the process of how the outer corona of the sun turns into solar wind.

He notes that now that the middle corona of the sun can be imaged, the captures of PUNCH can now be linked back to their origins. This may result in a better picture of the interaction of solar wind with the solar system. Before such observations, only a few believed that monitoring the middle corona at such distances could be executed in UV. Such studies have enabled an entirely new way of monitoring the corona on a deeper and larger scale.

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Check out more news and information on the Sun in Science Times.