Daily Science News
  • Home
  • Space
  • Humans
  • Earth & Energy
  • Physics
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Nature
  • Tech
What's Hot

How Do Superflares Become So Powerful?

December 13, 2023

Mysterious ‘Picket Fence’ Radiation May Not Be an Aurora After All

December 13, 2023

JWST Observes a Supernova Remnant Unlike Anything Else: Meet Cassiopeia A

December 13, 2023
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Daily Science News
  • Home
  • Space
  • Humans
  • Earth & Energy
  • Physics
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Nature
  • Tech
Facebook
Daily Science News
Home » Are These Tiny Jets on the Sun the Source of the Solar Wind?
Space

Are These Tiny Jets on the Sun the Source of the Solar Wind?

BryarBy BryarAugust 30, 2023Updated:August 30, 2023No Comments4 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr WhatsApp VKontakte Email
Credit: ESA
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

Astronomers have been trying to understand the source of the solar wind ever since the first direct observations of it in 1959. Now, researchers utilizing the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft believe they have a solution: microscopic eruptions known as “picoflares.” At a speed of 100 kilometers per second, they emerge into the corona.

The discovery is the result of in-depth research in the extreme ultraviolet of a coronal hole at the south pole of the Sun. The observations identified a number of transient, weak characteristics linked to tiny plasma jets released from the Sun. According to Lakshmi Pradeep Chitta of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany, “We could only detect these tiny jets because of the unprecedented high-resolution, high-cadence images produced by EUI.” Chitta and associates list the facts and conclusions in a paper summarizing the observations.

This movie was created from observations taken by the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft on 30 March 2022 between 04:30 and 04:55 UTC and shows a ‘coronal hole’ near the Sun’s south pole. Tiny jets show up as little flashes of bright light across the image. Each one expels charged particles, known as plasma, into space. These jets could be the source of the solar wind.

Creating the Solar Wind

Numerous events in the Solar System are caused by the solar wind. It affects the magnetic fields of many planets, including Earth, and contributes to space weather phenomena like aurorae. As these frozen bodies circle the Sun, it also has an impact on comets, sculpting their plasma tails.

Despite the fact that this wind is a fundamental characteristic of the Sun, solar physicists haven’t always had a clear understanding of how it is produced. They’ve known for a while that coronal holes are mostly responsible for it. On the solar surface, these black areas represent magnetic structures in the corona. They are essentially regions of the solar atmosphere where the magnetic field does not revert to the Sun. Instead, through the Solar System and out from the Sun, their magnetic field lines stretch. The solar wind is simply plasma escaping from the Sun along those “exit lines,” as is only natural for plasma to do. However, the crucial query is still, “What launches it in the first place?”

On the Sun, coronal holes can emerge almost anywhere, though they are more common around the poles. During the quieter period of the solar cycle (the solar minimum), they appear to occur more frequently and last longer. They do, however, also appear during solar maximum.

Jets and the Solar Wind

Solar physicists have long observed a variety of the Sun’s jets and outbursts, which are not a novel concept. Coronal mass ejections are the biggest. These send out through space vast quantities of energetic particles. Additionally, there are things known as X-class solar flares. The solar nanoflares are another factor. Although less active, these are nonetheless powerful. Despite having a billion times less energy than the powerful solar flares, they occur almost continuously. They might be to blame for raising the corona’s temperature to its astonishingly high 2-million-degree level.

Compared to nanoflares, picoflares are less powerful. Solar Orbiter’s small jets have a thousand times lower energy output than a nanoflare. They do, however, appear to have a lot of punch. They focus the majority of their energy on ejecting plasma away from the Sun. This contributes to the solar wind’s almost continuous flow. They are so common that they undoubtedly emit a higher proportion of solar wind than anticipated.

A sequence of Solar Orbiter images showing tiny jets called “picoflares” escaping the Sun and helping to create the solar wind. Courtesy: ESA.

Although there is still a lot to understand about this process, ongoing Solar Orbiter investigations should assist clarify the mechanism. “One of the results here is that to a large extent, this flow is not actually uniform, the ubiquity of the jets suggests that the solar wind from coronal holes might originate as a highly intermittent outflow,” said Andrei Zhukov, Royal Observatory of Belgium, a collaborator on the work and the man in charge of the Solar Orbiter observational campaign.

These persistent little ejections are still being measured by Solar Orbiter. In fact, it is currently revolving around the Sun in the equatorial regions. Its orbit will eventually include the polar regions. Fortunately, the spacecraft will be able to observe changes in the Sun as the current solar cycle develops thanks to that adjustment in orbit. This implies that it will be able to investigate these minute features in coronal holes that appear at various solar latitudes.

More info:

Solar Orbiter Discovers Tiny Jets that Could Power the Solar Wind
Picoflare Jets Power the Solar Wind Emerging from a Coronal Hole on the Sun
arXiv Article

Solar Orbiter Web Page

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr WhatsApp Email
Previous Article𝐀 Feast 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 E𝐲𝐞𝐬
Next Article The Origin of Our Solar System Is Captured in This Ancient Meteorite!
Bryar
  • Website
  • Facebook
  • Instagram

Man of Digital World Holding Multi-Diploma & BSc in IT & Computer Science

Related Posts

How Do Superflares Become So Powerful?

December 13, 2023

Mysterious ‘Picket Fence’ Radiation May Not Be an Aurora After All

December 13, 2023

JWST Observes a Supernova Remnant Unlike Anything Else: Meet Cassiopeia A

December 13, 2023

The ‘Should Not Exist’ Giant Planet Is Too Massive For Its Tiny Star

December 2, 2023

How Do Superflares Become So Powerful?

December 13, 2023

Mysterious ‘Picket Fence’ Radiation May Not Be an Aurora After All

December 13, 2023

JWST Observes a Supernova Remnant Unlike Anything Else: Meet Cassiopeia A

December 13, 2023

The ‘Should Not Exist’ Giant Planet Is Too Massive For Its Tiny Star

December 2, 2023
Space
18 Views

How Do Superflares Become So Powerful?

By BryarDecember 13, 20230 Space 5 Mins Read

Our star is capable of producing flares strong enough to cause havoc on Earth. Strong…

Mysterious ‘Picket Fence’ Radiation May Not Be an Aurora After All

December 13, 2023

JWST Observes a Supernova Remnant Unlike Anything Else: Meet Cassiopeia A

December 13, 2023

The ‘Should Not Exist’ Giant Planet Is Too Massive For Its Tiny Star

December 2, 2023
About
About

SciWriter is a private digital magazine consisting of well known science content that refers to latest articles & subjects on science for the general reader.

Email Us: info@sciwriter.org

Facebook Instagram
  • Privacy Policy
  • Get In Touch
© 2025 SciWriter All Rights Reserved. Sciwriter.org.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.