Mystery solved: Solar probe captures for the first time a strange phenomenon on the sun | Science and Ecology | Dr..

The Solar Orbiter probe, which is traveling toward the Sun, has solved one of the mysteries intriguing scientists about our star, by making the first direct and consistent observation of a phenomenon called magnetic flagella.

The recorded data provide “compelling evidence” about the origin of this phenomenon and indicate how its formation mechanism may help accelerate the solar wind, the continuous flow of energetic particles emitted by the solar corona, According to a study published Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Magnetic flagella and sudden deviations of the magnetic field of the solar wind and observations of the European Space Agency (ESA) probe confirmed that this phenomenon is S-shaped as expected, and that its origin may be near the photosphere (the outermost layer of the Sun).

One of the greatest mysteries of the sun

These clots could be one mechanism that helps explain one of the sun’s great mysteries: why the photosphere is so much cooler than the corona (atmosphere), although it’s too early to draw conclusions, university astrophysicist Efe said of Alcala de Henares Javier Rodriguez Pacheco.

This phenomenon was already discovered by the missions of Ulysses and Helios, but with technology from the last century and only through “in situ” data, collected from the environment of ships, and was theoretically explained.

The Solar Orbiter is equipped with “on-site” instruments and other devices that directly monitor the sun, making it possible, for the first time, to monitor one of these “live” wounds, according to Rodriguez Pacheco, principal investigator for the Energy Particle Detector (EPD), one of the Solar Orbiter’s instruments, Although not involved in this study.

The European Space Agency noted in a statement that these mysterious magnetic field inversions, as observed in those first missions, “were always sudden and temporary,” from a few seconds to several hours, before returning to their original orientation.

Indirect detection of these injuries increased in 2018 with data provided by NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, which is still in service.

S-shaped distortion fold

The European Space Agency (ESA) adds that the Solar Orbiter’s observations were made last March using the Metis Coronagraph, which takes pictures of the star’s outer atmosphere, and recorded an image showing a distorted S-shaped fold in the coronal plasma, “suspiciously similar to a change in direction.” “.

Rodriguez Pacheco said the data “supports one theory about these rare flagella or structures in the magnetic field, which link their origin to the photosphere and near sunspots or active regions of the sun.”

“I would like to say that this first image of a magnetic strike in the solar corona has revealed the mystery of its origin,” said Daniele Teloni of the Astrophysical Observatory in Turin (Italy) and one of the authors of the study.

The wounds will correspond to slow-moving plasma over an active region of the Sun that has not yet released its stored energy.

Solar orbiter collided with a large coronal mass ejection

The solar orbiter will make its closest pass from the sun on October 13, about 42 million kilometers away, as it flew above Venus this week, when it was hit by a major coronal mass strike.

Rodriguez Pacheco said the probe was undamaged because it was configured for “this kind of extreme conditions,” which highlighted the great intensity of the ejection, at around 1,100 kilometers per second, and that it happened in just a few days. Later. From another, more powerful device, about 1300.

FEW (EFE, ESA)