Such phenomena were known before, but they were not directly observed.
The European Solar Orbiter was able observe a mysterious “reverse switch” in the solar wind that may explain what causes particles of the solar wind to travel through our planetary system, Space.com reports. March this year. Scientists described these observations, an article with their results was published on September 12. It calls the event “the first evidence of reverse switching in the solar corona”.
Read also: Incredibly clear images of the Sun's surface publishedPreviously, the existence of such switches was purely hypothetical, since other devices, such as the Parker Solar Probe (“Parker”), recorded sudden inversions of the magnetic field near the Sun. But such events have never been observed directly, because the spacecraft that discovered them did not have cameras.
For example, “Parker” periodically flies at a distance of only a few million kilometers from the Sun. But the temperature here is so high that existing cameras will not be able to withstand switching on in such conditions.
Solar Orbiter approaches the star only one-third of the distance from Earth to the Sun. It is equipped with two types of sensors: direct imaging instruments, as well as sensors that measure the properties of the environment.
Scientists compared the images obtained by the Solar Orbiter at different wavelengths and found that an unusual phenomenon is occurring directly above the Sun spot: a colder region on the surface of a star.
According to the researchers, this phenomenon is similar to a whiplash that releases large amounts of energy and creates zigzag-shaped structures that are then released into space.
Such switching, scientists believe, may play an important role in accelerating and heating the solar wind, the stream of particles coming from the Sun. Such an acceleration can be observed very far from the star, and scientists cannot yet find an explanation for why.
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