THE PROBES STEREO SOLAR CORONA DISCOVERED THAT IS GREATER THAN THOUGHT: Around the sun is a great atmosphere of solar particles, through which swarm magnetic fields, solar flares erupt, and giant columns lifting materials fall and another to push around. Now, using the Terrestrial Relations Observatory and NASAs Solar (STEREO), scientists have found that this atmosphere, called corona, is even larger than previously thought. It extends to about 5 million kilometers above the Suns surface, equivalent to 12 solar radii. This information has implications for the next mission Solar Probe Plus, NASA, to be launched in 2018 and the probe will travel closer to the sun so far. These observations provide the first direct measurements of the inner boundary of the heliosphere, the giant solar particles sparsely filled bubble surrounding the Sun and all the planets. In combination the data from STEREO probe measurements of Voyager 1 at the external border of the heliosphere, we now define the scope of all this local bubble. We followed the sound as waves through the outer ring and use these to map the solar atmosphere, said Craig DeForest of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. We can not hear the sound directly through the vacuum of space, but with a careful analysis we can see the ripples through the crown. The results were published in The Astrophysical Journal on May 12, 2014. Researchers studied magnetosonic waves known as waves, and are a hybrid of sound waves and magnetic waves called Alfven waves. Unlike sound waves on Earth, ranging several hundred times per second, these waves oscillate around once every four hours, and have about 10 times the length of the Earth. The Tracking magnetosonic waves showed DeForest and his team that the material through this expanded space of the crown remained connected to the solar material much deeper, that is, even more than 5 million miles from the Sun giant solar storms and coronal mass ejections can create ripple effects that can be felt through the crown. Beyond that limit, however, the solar material goes on in a steady stream called the solar wind, there, the material is separated from the star and its motion can not affect the crown. Realizing that the corona extends far beyond previously thought has important implications for the Solar Probe Plus spacecraft, NASA mission that will move about 4 billion miles from the sun. Scientists knew that the mission will collect information closer to the sun than ever before, but could not be sure that he could travel to this point. This research provides confidence that Solar Probe Plus, as it is designed, will explore the inner solar magnetic system, said Marco Velli, a scientist at the Solar Probe Plus Laboratory Jet Propulsion NASA JPL in Pasadena, California. The mission of directly measuring the density, velocity and magnetic field of the solar material there, allow us to understand how the movement and heat in the corona and solar wind are generated. With direct access to the suns atmosphere, the Solar Probe Plus will provide unprecedented information about how the solar corona is heated and revolutionize our understanding of the origin and evolution of the solar wind. Source: noticias.nasa.gov meteorologiaespacial.es
Posted on: Fri, 27 Jun 2014 00:21:29 +0000
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