Enormous Sun Hole, Over 56 Times The Size Of Earth, Blasts Solar Wind Towards Our Planet
A big hole in the Sun's atmosphere that's about five times larger than the diameter of Jupiter is currently kicking up a storm. A solar wind emanating from this coronal hole is currently passing through the solar system.
What is happening?
The hole is currently rotating away from Earth, but a few days ago, it was spewing particles in Earth's direction. Although it only caused a minor solar storm, the coronal hole is essentially a characteristic of the Sun's activity lately.
The Sun undergoes activity cycles. When more sunspots, solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and coronal holes occur, it means that the Sun is witnessing a lot of action.
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The peak of this activity is called solar maximum before it subsides towards solar minimum. The cycle is influenced by (or it at least coincides) with the Sun's magnetic cycles - when its north and south poles switch places during solar maximum, that is expected to take place sometime in 2024.
What is a coronal hole?
It is a large area where the Sun's magnetic field opens up. Such holes are only visible in ultraviolet wavelengths when we see huge and dark patches that are dimmer than their surroundings because they're cooler, Science Alert explained.
The current coronal hole is huge and has almost rotated away to Sun's far side. According to Spaceweather, it measures around 800,000 kilometres along its longest axis. For comparison, Jupiter's diameter is 140,000 kilometres while Earth's is 12,742 kilometres.
Also read:?Incredible Imagery Shows NASA's Parker Probe As It's Hit By A Solar Storm
The coronal hole was facing Earth around December 2 and the solar wind hit Earth on December 4 and 5. This led to a mild solar storm hitting us (a G1 to G2 level solar storm).
What happens during solar winds?
Particles from the solar wind hit Earth's magnetosphere and travel along magnetic field lines to the poles where they sit in the upper atmosphere. Such particles interact with atmospheric particles to create auroras.
Sometimes, such storms can interfere with power grids, satellite operations, radio communications, and navigation systems but the effects are minimal from G1 and G2 level storms.
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