observation of a “solar eel” slithering across the surface of the sun; Watch the video

Posted on 11/18/2022 6:51 PM

(Credit: NASA/SDO/AIA)

An unprecedented record of the sun’s surface captured the moment a ‘solar eel’ slid through the superstar’s twisting atmosphere. according to European Space Agency, which captured motion, this phenomenon refers to an intersection of cold gases without electrons driven by the sun’s magnetic fields that “drift” from one point to another in the sun. Watch the moment:

Captured using the Solar Orbiter, an instrument launched by the European Space Agency in February 2020 to closely and exclusively observe the Sun’s surface. Since the mission’s inception, the atmospheric gas snake has been the most powerful phenomenon astronomers have seen.

Captured using the Solar Orbiter, an instrument launched by the European Space Agency in February 2020 To closely and exclusively observe the surface of the Sun. Since the mission’s inception, the atmospheric gas snake has been the most powerful phenomenon astronomers have seen.

It works like this: the Sun, because it has temperatures above a million degrees Celsius, has no gas in its atmosphere, but a plasma – which is nothing more than a new physical state of gases. In this state of matter, the gas begins to lose electrons and makes the element electrically charged, an ideal state that is imparted by the magnetic fields of the Sun.

Next, Solar Orbiter recorded the moment a cold plasma tube sweeps across a long magnetic field on the Sun’s surface, starting on one side of the star and ending on the other. Despite the speed at which it is seen in the video, the ‘snake’ journey took three hours.

The film was created as a time-lapse from footage from the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager aboard the Solar Orbiter. The snake in fact took about three hours to complete its journey, but from the distances involved in crossing the sun’s surface, the plasma must have been It travels at about 170 kilometers per second.”

This phenomenon may be the beginning of a powerful explosion

More than an eye-catcher, the solar snake phenomenon has caught the attention of astronomers because it preceded a large eruption on the surface of the sun. Moments after the snake appeared, its flashpoint erupted, “spurting billions of tons of plasma into space” — making it “one of the most solar-active particle events yet detected” by the particle detector. Energetics from Solar Orbiter.

Scientists are now looking to analyze whether the volcanic eruption caused the snake to slip away or whether it was the snake that triggered the eruption. To find out the answer, the researchers will have plasma data from this eruption captured by NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, which experienced the eruption.

“Being able to see a volcanic eruption and then sample the gases released, either with your own instruments or those of another spacecraft, is one of the main science goals of Solar Orbiter. This will allow for a better understanding of solar activity and the way it creates ‘space weather’, which can It disrupts satellites and other technology on Earth.”

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