Amazing stuff!
We still know shockingly little about the sun and its varying if not periodic solar activity. What if the sun is one of the dominant factors determining climate change on earth?
"... Data captured by NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has confirmed that the Sun’s magnetic field lines break to reconnect in a new configuration, releasing large amounts of energy. ..."
"New research ... has confirmed decades-old theoretical models about magnetic reconnection, the process that releases stored magnetic energy to drive solar flares, coronal mass ejections and other space weather phenomena. The data was captured by NASA’s Parker Solar Probe (PSP), which is the only spacecraft to have flown through the Sun’s upper atmosphere.
Magnetic reconnection occurs when magnetic field lines in plasma sever and reconnect in a new configuration, releasing large amounts of stored energy. On the Sun, this energy release often results in solar activity that can affect technology on Earth, a phenomenon known as space weather.
Modeling solar magnetic reconnection accurately may help predict coronal mass ejections, solar flares and other space weather events that can impact satellites, communication systems and even power grids on Earth. ..."
From the abstract:
"Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental process within highly conductive plasmas. Oppositely oriented field lines are reconfigured, releasing stored magnetic energy. It plays a vital role in shaping the dynamics of the solar corona and provides one of the main mechanisms for releasing the stored energy that powers solar eruptions. Reconnection at the Sun has been studied using remote-sensing observations, but the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) now permits in situ sampling of reconnection-related plasma in the corona.
Here we report on a PSP fly-through of a reconnecting current sheet in the corona during a major solar eruption on 5–6 September 2022. We find that even 24 h after the flare peak, PSP detected the reconnection exhaust, indicating continuing fast reconnection, which we confirmed using remote-sensing observations made by the Solar Orbiter.
This reconnection persisted much longer than typical timescales of a few minutes to hours. Plasma parameters measured by PSP within the reconnection region match numerical simulations.
These new observations provide a key bridge between theory and measurements of plasmas in the solar atmosphere, laboratory experiments and astrophysical systems, generating new constraints required for the refinement of models and for the strengthening of their links to observations at many scales."
SwRI-led work confirms decades-old theoretical models about solar reconnection "Research helps fill crucial observation gaps about process that drives solar flares, coronal mass ejections"
SwRI-led work confirms decades-old theoretical models about solar reconnection (original news release)
Coronal Mass Ejection Source
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