The Sun is constantly flooding the Solar System with a flow of highly charged particle called solar wind . The flow of this wind is not uninterrupted but disorderly , with waves sloshing about and other features that we are still struggling to calculate out .
A new find report in theJournal of Geophysical Research : Space Physicshas detailed solar wind blobs – bubble - like regions of the solar wind anywhere between 50 to 500 times the size of it of Earth . For the first time , researchers have shown that these blobs are hotter and denser than the rest of the solar wind .
The discovery was possible thanks to 45 - twelvemonth - old data collected by two German - NASA spacecraft called Helios 1 and Helios 2 , which were launched severally in 1974 and 1976 . Lead generator Simone di Matteo , a graduate student at the University of L’Aquila , discovered the peculiar patterns in the data .
The data point establish perfect wave - similar patterns without any flaws . And if there ’s something that ’s clear in science and in life , in general , it is that things that are too full to be true are ordinarily false . Given that most citizenry working on the probe have retired by now , di Matteo used the internet to find out if something in the probes might be the cause of the pattern .
“ That was a violent flag , ” co - author Nicholeen Viall , from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center , said in astatement . “ The real solar twist does n’t have such accurate , sporting periodicities . ordinarily , when you get such a precise frequency , it means some instrument consequence is going on . ”
di Matteo discovered a German manual for the investigation that revealed there were two instruments used to measure the solar wind . The scientist wanted to be ready for dissimilar scenarios .
The pattern is bring out by the spacecraft itself switch over from one instrument to the other . Once this was taken into consideration , the research worker were able to regain the true formula , which turn out to be dotted trails of blobs come out from the Sun ’s vicinity every 90 moment or so . This is the close to the Sun these blobs have been honor . shortly , they might be examine by NASA ’s Parker Solar Probe , which will spend the next seven years birr closer and closer to the Sun until it fly just 4 million kilometers ( 2.5 million nautical mile ) from it .
“ When a mission like Parker is move to see things no one has see before , just a breath of what could be remark is really helpful , ” Di Matteo said .
