The Sun regularly erupts, emitting strong solar flares, releasing a lot of radiation into space. Physicists have successfully created the process to study X-rays.
Tiny Solar Flares in a Lab
In order to examine the potent X-rays and energetic particles that stream across the Solar System, a group of physicists stimulated solar flares using a device that transforms strong electrical bursts into rope-like loops of plasma, ScienceAlert reported.
Because the particle acceleration occurs at a scale smaller than the observation resolution, solar measurements can detect energetic particles and hard X-rays but cannot identify the originating mechanism. According to a team led by Caltech physicist Yang Zhang, the specifics of the cross-scale physics that explains the production of energetic particles and hard X-rays are yet unknown.
In their study, they describe findings from a lab experiment that mimics the mechanics of the solar coronal loop. They decided to replicate solar flares in the laboratory because there's a limit to the scale of observations they can make using the current technology.
Caltech physicist Paul Bellan created a test device specifically for producing coronal loop formations. Along magnetic field lines extending into the solar corona, these are lengthy, closed arcs of ropy, incandescent plasma emerging from the solar photosphere. These are frequently linked to flares and coronal mass ejections, two signs of increased solar activity.
The device has electrodes, electromagnets, and gas nozzles inside a vacuum chamber.
First, a magnetic field is created inside the vacuum chamber by turning on the electromagnets. The electrode region is then exposed to the gas.
The gas is subsequently ionized, converting into plasma, forming a loop restrained by the magnetic field. It is accomplished by applying a strong electrical discharge on millisecond time scales via the electrodes.
According to Bellan, each experiment uses roughly the same amount of energy to run a 100-watt light bulb. Charging the capacitor only takes a few minutes.
Each loop is extremely brief, lasting about 10 microseconds, and is only 20 centimeters (7.9 inches) long and one centimeter in diameter. However, high-speed cameras capture every second of the loop's development and spread, allowing the research team to examine its origin, structure, and evolution thoroughly.
Plasma Loops Are Like Braids
Recent research has revealed that coronal loops not only resemble rope in appearance but also in structure. Thanks to the recent study, the team has determined what function this structure serves in creating solar ejecta.
Zhang said if you take a piece of rope apart, you can see that it's braided together from individual strands. Plasma loops appear to function; similarly, he added. If you separate each individual strand, you'll notice that they are braided of even smaller strands, and so on.
It turns out that these strands cause X-ray bursts. Since plasma is a good conductor, current flows through the loops, but occasionally the current can flow through a loop more than it can handle, much like when too much water is rushing through a hose.
The study was published in Nature Astronomy.
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