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It turns out that anyone who drew a smiley face as a child has been scientifically proven, somewhat, right. Last week, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured an image of the largest object in our solar system resembling the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from “Ghostbusters,” the face-faced “Teletubbies” sun baby or a flashlight (if you want) get back into the Halloween spirit).
But what looks like a Scrub Daddy sponge on fire might not be as pretty as it seems. For us here on Earth, the sun emoji could happen a beautiful aurora vision, or it could indicate problems for the planet’s telecommunications systems.
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The sun is, in essence, “the largest nuclear reactor in our solar system,” said Brian Keating, a professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego. There’s a flurry of action happening every second in the massive, spinning, glowing ball of hot gas, from the conversion of hydrogen into helium, which emits the same amount of heat as several nuclear bombs, to electrical storms and earthquakes
Some of that solar activity was photographed Wednesday by NASA’s satellite, Keating told The Washington Post.
In the image, the trio of patches that make up the “face” – which cannot be seen with the human eye because they are in the ultraviolet spectrum – are what are known as coronal holes, or slightly cooler sections of the outer layer of the sun. , which usually has a temperature of about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
“We’re talking about a few hundred degrees, so it’s not like a ski resort,” Keating said. “But because they are so dark and because we look at them with ultraviolet radiation, which the naked eye cannot see, the [NASA satellite] he sees them as dark holes.”
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Coronal holes are not just interesting shapes that move across the surface of the sun. They are areas of high magnetic field activity that constantly send solar wind (or a flow of protons, electrons and other particles) into the universe.
“Rather than a smiling face, its eyes are like bright laser beams that send out particles that can cause severe disruptions in Earth’s atmosphere,” Keating said.
When the particles, which carry an electric charge, touch the planet in small doses, could be followed by colorful auroras, which offer brilliant displays caused by gases in the atmosphere interacting with the sun’s belched bursts of energy. Problems arise if large numbers of tiny particles collide with Earth, Keating said. Instead of being sucked in by the Earth’s magnetic field, they could be picked up by radio antennas and disrupt radio, television and other communication channels. A strong solar storm could even damage power grids and cause power outages, Keating added.
On December 14, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe flew through the Sun’s upper atmosphere and sampled particles and magnetic fields. (Video: NASA Goddard)
while Images of a smiling sun have been captured before, for example in 2013 after it was “eaten by a comet” or in 2014 when NASA dubbed it the “Pumpkin Sun”, the worst-case scenario Keating described has not happened in almost two centuries. . The last intense geomagnetic storm that affected the Earth so much was the Carrington event of 1859, which caused fires at several telegraph stations when auroras occurred in tropical regions.
A massive event like this is long overdue, he said.
“Scientists expect this to happen on average, with a couple percent chance, every year, and we’ve just dodged all these magnetic bullets for so long,” Keating said. “So it could be really scary, and the consequences could be much more dramatic, especially in our technology-dependent society today.”
The sun’s particles from the last smiles event may reach Earth just in time for the spookiest night of the year.
“After all, there might be something on the way for Halloween night,” Keating said. “Quite spooky, but hopefully not too spooky.”
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center issued a minor geomagnetic storm watch on Saturday, warning that conditions could change from “unstable” to “active.” Eruptions from coronal holes are expected to continue through Wednesday.