WASHINGTON: NASA has created a video to 'see' and understand the Sun's invisible magnetic field, that may be crucial for future deep space travel, bycombining real time observations and computer simulations to analyse how plasma courses through its corona.
The Sun is a giant magnetic star, made of material that moves in concert with the laws of electromagnetism.
Its magnetic field is responsible for everything from the solar explosions that cause space weather on Earth - such as auroras - to the interplanetary magnetic field and radiation through which our spacecraft journeying around the solar system must travel.
"We are not sure exactly where in the Sun the magnetic field is created," said Dean Pesnell, a space scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland.
"It could be close to the solar surface or deep inside the Sun -- or over a wide range of depths," Pesnell said.
To see these invisible fields, scientists observed the material on the Sun. The Sun is made of plasma, a gas-like state of matter in which electrons and ions have separated, creating a super-hot mix of charged particles.
When charged particles move, they naturally create magnetic fields, which in turn have an additional effect on how the particles move.
The Sun is a giant magnetic star, made of material that moves in concert with the laws of electromagnetism.
Its magnetic field is responsible for everything from the solar explosions that cause space weather on Earth - such as auroras - to the interplanetary magnetic field and radiation through which our spacecraft journeying around the solar system must travel.
"We are not sure exactly where in the Sun the magnetic field is created," said Dean Pesnell, a space scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland.
"It could be close to the solar surface or deep inside the Sun -- or over a wide range of depths," Pesnell said.
To see these invisible fields, scientists observed the material on the Sun. The Sun is made of plasma, a gas-like state of matter in which electrons and ions have separated, creating a super-hot mix of charged particles.
When charged particles move, they naturally create magnetic fields, which in turn have an additional effect on how the particles move.
No comments:
Post a Comment