Credit: Sijie YuScientists have recognized persistent radio bursts from the Sun comparable to Earths auroras, opening new research opportunities in excellent and solar phenomena.A NASA-funded team of scientists has actually found lasting radio signals emanating from the Sun that are similar to those associated with auroras– northern and southern lights– on Earth.Detected about 25,000 miles (40,000 km) above a sunspot– a fairly cool, dark, and magnetically active area on the Sun– such radio bursts had actually previously been observed just on planets and other stars. The radio bursts Yus group detected, utilizing the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array in New Mexico, persisted for over a week.These sunspot radio bursts likewise have other qualities– such as their spectra (or intensity at different wavelengths) and their polarization (the angle or instructions of the radio waves)– that are much more like radio emissions produced in the polar areas of Earth and other planets with auroras.Scientists found aurora-like radio bursts above the big, dark sunspot seen in the upper left in this image of the Sun taken on April 11, 2016, by NASAs Solar Dynamics Observatory. As they accelerate poleward, the particles create extreme radio emissions at frequencies around a few hundred kilohertz and then smash into atoms in the atmosphere, triggering them to discharge light as auroras.The analysis by Yus team suggests the radio bursts above the sunspot are most likely produced in an equivalent way– when energetic electrons get trapped and sped up by assembling magnetic fields above a sunspot.
Credit: Sijie YuScientists have actually determined relentless radio bursts from the Sun comparable to Earths auroras, opening new research avenues in solar and outstanding phenomena.A NASA-funded group of researchers has discovered long-lasting radio signals originating from the Sun that are similar to those associated with auroras– northern and southern lights– on Earth.Detected about 25,000 miles (40,000 km) above a sunspot– a fairly cool, dark, and magnetically active area on the Sun– such radio bursts had formerly been observed just on planets and other stars. The radio bursts Yus team found, utilizing the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array in New Mexico, continued for over a week.These sunspot radio bursts likewise have other attributes– such as their spectra (or intensity at various wavelengths) and their polarization (the angle or instructions of the radio waves)– that are much more like radio emissions produced in the polar areas of Earth and other worlds with auroras.Scientists discovered aurora-like radio bursts above the large, dark sunspot seen in the upper left in this image of the Sun taken on April 11, 2016, by NASAs Solar Dynamics Observatory. As they accelerate poleward, the particles generate extreme radio emissions at frequencies around a couple of hundred kilohertz and then smash into atoms in the atmosphere, causing them to discharge light as auroras.The analysis by Yus group suggests the radio bursts above the sunspot are likely produced in an equivalent method– when energetic electrons get trapped and sped up by assembling magnetic fields above a sunspot.