A message on Twitter made a lot of noise, but it turned out to be nothing dreadful.
In the past few days, there have been many rather illogical headlines on the Web about a piece of the Sun being torn off, a terrible hurricane looming over the Sun, and our star generally disintegrating. It was also claimed that this event could see the Webb Space Telescope. The authors of such stories also wrote that scientists are confused by what is happening on the Sun. What really happened? Forbes writes about it.
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Fortunately for us, no part of the Sun left the star, the Sun broke into pieces. All this is not true. Also, the Webb telescope was never pointed at the Sun, meaning it was unable to capture what was happening in the star. And one more thing: scientists are not confused.
But in any case, something incredible happened on the Sun. So why are there so many misleading headlines on the Web? It all started with a tweet from space weather astronomer Tamita Skov. In fact, he posted this tweet on February 3, but it went viral on the Web almost a week later.
Skov wrote that in the Sun, matter from the northern bulge broke off from the main filament and circulated in a great polar vortex around the north pole of our star. He confirmed his message with images captured by the SDO spacecraft’s camera. And after that, the Network exploded with multiple reports of a piece from the Sun.
What actually happened on the Sun?
A long filament of plasma, which is essentially the gas that makes up all stars, protruded from the Sun’s surface, creating a huge ring called a bulge. This is a normal phenomenon for the Sun. Such projections are visible to the naked eye during the total phase of a total solar eclipse. Here’s how they look:
But in early February, the bulge split and then rotated over the Sun’s north pole. No part of the Sun has broken off, but the spinning of the thread around the Sun’s polar region makes this a pretty rare event.
The resulting plasma stream resembled a polar vortex, a low-pressure system that creates large loops of cold air over Earth’s poles in winter. Therefore, some scientists also called this phenomenon a polar vortex in the Sun.
According to Scott McIntosh of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, USA, such projections appear on the Sun every 11 years. Later, Tamita Skov stated that the polar vortex in the Sun was mentioned in many media, but she urged not to believe the news that something broke from the Sun.
“This is part of completely normal and surprising solar activity,” Skov said. Said.
Solar Orbiter and solar maximum
Scientists do not yet know exactly why this event occurs on the Sun, as they do not have images of the polar regions of our star. But soon everything will change. By early 2025, the Solar Orbiter spacecraft will be in close proximity to the Sun and will be able to take pictures of the polar regions for the first time.
Also, the spacecraft will observe the solar maximum, that is, the peak of solar activity that increases every 11 years. It is estimated that this peak will take place in the summer of 2025. Meanwhile, solar flares appear on the Sun more and more often, according to scientists, the closer the solar maximum moment is.
Why wasn’t the Webb Space Telescope facing the Sun?
This observatory is the best and most powerful space telescope to date. It has a giant 6.5-metre primary mirror and can detect even the faintest light from the most distant stars and galaxies.
The Webb telescope is constantly pointed into space away from the Sun and has a special protective shield that protects the observatory’s instruments from heat and sunlight. All the instruments in the Webb telescope must be very cold to see distant stars in the infrared. If the observatory were pointed towards the Sun, its instruments would stop working.
As already written FocusOn February 11, another very powerful X-class flare occurred on the Sun. This event, which caused a short-term power outage on Earth, was also observed by the SDO spacecraft.
As for other cosmic events, then Focus I already wrote that a cargo spacecraft of the Russian Federation broke down in orbit. It docked with the ISS and has the same accident as another Russian spacecraft that was there.
Source: Focus
Ashley Fitzgerald is an accomplished journalist in the field of technology. She currently works as a writer at 24 news breaker. With a deep understanding of the latest technology developments, Ashley’s writing provides readers with insightful analysis and unique perspectives on the industry.