How Crazy Magnetic Fields Drive the Sun Mad - by PaulMattSutter
Solar coronal jets are fast moving plumes of plasma that erupt suddenly from the polar regions of the Sun. Astronomers believe that these help heat up the solar corona, but the physics behind the formation of these jets is poorly understood. Recently a team of astronomers have used observations with the Solar Dynamic Observatory and the Solar Orbiter to discover that multiple intertwining magnetic fields that connect and reconnect can power these fast moving jets.
Normally in everyday situations we don’t care about magnetic fields all that much. Sure, they may wiggle our compasses around ,but they aren’t nearly powerful enough to influence us. The same is not true with the Sun. Usually the Sun has a powerful but relatively sedate magnetic field. But as the Sun rotates it can tangle up that magnetic field, forcing the field lines to twist up on themselves into thick ropes.
We can see when the magnetic fields get extremely tangled, because when bundles of magnetic field lines puncture the surface we see it as a sunspot. Eventually these tangled magnetic field lines get so caught up in themselves that they snap, releasing an enormous amount of energy. This is the mechanism behind the release of
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