A new phenomenon baptized as a solar serpent seen on the sun

Astronomy scientists They’ve been given the nickname Solar Serpent, but even the sun isn’t a special egg.rando hatch ne It is about There is no serpent of pure energy lurking beneath the surface of our star. This phenomenon is a super-fast rotating “cold” plasma tube, the appearance of which has intrigued scientists.

The Solar Snake was seen on October 5 by the Solar Orbiter probe during a It almost peaked on the 12th of the same month. This phenomenon is caused by a stream of plasma passing through the atmospherefield of the sun. Plasma is a state of matter in which atoms are deprived of their electrons They form a basis An incredibly hot gas of charged particles. In this case, the plasma is subject to higher fields.magnetic, and the surface of the Sun is littered with them. The magnetic fields form a tube through which the plasma travels at a monstrous speed of 612,000 km/h.

But why does the current take such a zigzag shape? The answer is the same in rivers or air currents on Earth. “In principle, it’s just a stream of plasma flowing back and forth,” explains David Long, an astrophysicist at Mullard Space Science Laboratory. European Space Agency You have in the UK, And the main responsible for the scientific results of the Solar Orbiter probe. “What’s happening is that the sun’s magnetic field is incredible.Capably twisted and this causes the current to change abruptly. We are actually looking at the surface of the structure Too crooked.”

The video on these lines is a time lapse created from photos taken by Ultraviolet imaging probe (EUI). In fact, the current takes about three hours.ras in crossing the solar surface.

The most interesting thing about this phenomenon is that in the place where it appeared shortly after a powerful eruption released billions of tons of plasma into space. The researchers suspect that solar snakes are an indicator that one of these eruptions will occur, which will no doubt be useful when it comes to more accurate predictions of the solar climate and its potential negative effects on Earth. [[[[[European Space Agency]