A study which can potentially change your understanding of the process that happen in the sun’s immediate atmosphere finds that the sun’s magnetic field is 10 times stronger than previously believed.
The study discovered that the sun's corona extends millions of kilometers above the surface, measuring 14,00,000 kilometers across, 109 times larger than Earth and 15,00,00,000 km from Earth.
As per one of the research student, everything that happens in the sun's outer atmosphere is liberated by the magnetic field, but very few measurements of its strength and spatial characteristics have been found as of now.
In La Palm of the Canary Islands, Kuridze studied a particularly strong solar flare which erupted near the surface of the sun on September 10, 2017. Solar flares look as bright flashes and occur when magnetic energy built up in the solar atmosphere is released.
Kuridze also added that this is the first time someone has been able to measure accurately the magnetic field of the coronal loops, the building blocks of the sun's magnetic corona, with such a level of accuracy.
Until now, effective measurement of the magnetic field has been delayed by the weakness of the signal from the sun's atmosphere that reaches Earth and caries information about the magnetic field, and limitations in the instrumentation available.
The magnetic fields are similar to those of a typical fridge magnet and around 100 times feebler than the magnetic field encountered in an MRI scanner. However, they are still responsible for the detention of the solar plasma, which make up solar flares, as far as 20,000 km above the sun's surface.
If the solar flares hit the Earth, form the northern lights - the Aurora Borealis can lead to storms. They can also disturb communications satellites and GPS systems.
Image Credit: Disclose.tv
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