Scientists from Indian Institute of Technology BHU, Varanasi and Indian Institute of Astrophysics in Bengaluru have discovered never-before-seen magnetic explosions on the surface of the sun.
This observation confirms a decade long theory and will help scientists better understand the atmosphere of the sun. This will eventually help in predicted space weather in a more accurate manner and help derive better results during controlled fusion and plasma experiments in the laboratory.
According to the study, (conducted with the help of NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory) in the hot upper areas of the Sun's atmosphere, a humongous loop of material that gets launched due to an eruption falls straight back onto the surface of the sun?
However, before it could reach the surface, it came across an array of magnetic field lines that sparked the eruption, resulting in a massive magnetic explosion.
Previous discoveries have revealed the explosion through magnetic field lines -- often referred to as magnetic reconnection -- however, no one has seen this get triggered by an eruption. This makes this discovery extraordinary.
This discovery was theorized by NASA -- called it forced reconnection -- but there wasn't any discovery pertaining to this.
Previously occurred magnetic reconnection explosions occurred in specific conditions, with specific amounts of ionised gas or plasma, weakly conducting with the magnetic field.?
However, forced reconnection doesn't require such prerequisites. It just needs some kind of eruption to trigger it.
"This was the first observation of an external driver of magnetic reconnection," said Abhishek Srivastava, solar scientist at the Indian Institute of Technology (BHU).
He further added, "This could be very useful for understanding other systems. For example, Earth's and planetary magnetospheres, other magnetised plasma sources, including experiments at laboratory scales where plasma is highly diffusive and very hard to control.
"Our thought is that forced reconnection is everywhere," Srivastava said."But we have to continue to observe it, to quantify it, if we want to prove that."