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Observations from the Solar Orbiter spacecraft have shed light on many mysteries surrounding the sun.
Image: ESA
We’ve long known that the Sun emits solar wind streams, but the origin of the electrically charged particles within them has remained an enigma, fueling decades of research.
Images taken last year by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument aboard the Solar Orbiter spacecraft, a joint mission of ESA and NASA, could provide the key to unraveling the source of these solar wind streams.
In an article published in the journal Science, a research team described observing an abundant number of bursts of particles emerging from a dark region on the Sun’s surface known as “coronal holes,” captured in images taken by the spacecraft.
The research team dubbed these “picoflare beams” because they carry an energy a million times that of the largest solar flare bursts. These picoflare beams are hundreds of kilometers in length, moving at speeds around 100 kilometers per second, and they only exist for 20 to 100 seconds.
Researchers believe these beams could release enough high-temperature plasma to be a significant energy source for the solar wind within our solar system.
Scientists are still working to understand the mechanism that expels the plasma beams. This discovery might eventually hold the answer they’ve sought for years.
Lakshmi Pradeep Chitta, the lead author of the study from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, told Space.com, “The picoflares we observed are the smallest and weakest flares ever measured on the solar surface. However, the energy of a picoflare’s burst sustains for a minute, equivalent to the average energy consumption of around 10,000 households in the UK in a year.”
Beyond data collection, these studies might provide answers about the plasma streams causing auroras on Earth. Their observations could also illuminate why the Sun’s atmosphere is hotter than its surface.
While observing the picoflare beams has provided valuable new insights, scientists still need time and research to understand the specific mechanisms behind these phenomena.
The Solar Orbiter spacecraft will continue its observations and data collection to give us a clearer understanding of the causes and mechanisms behind solar wind activity.
An important takeaway is that this discovery highlights the significance of continuing space research and developing technologies and tools to better comprehend the complex phenomena within the universe that surrounds us.