Observations from the Solar Orbiter (Soloof the European Space Agency (ESA) expressed events of the type “Shooting Star“Never seen before.
Scientists have discovered a similar phenomenon Comets In our coronal shower Sol.
The findings will be presented at the Annual Astronomy Meeting (NAM 2023) and will be led by Patrick Antolin, Assistant Professor at Northumbria University. What is your discovery?
Comets?
This process takes place in the coronal shower, a condensation process in which part of the material burns Sol Accumulates due to sudden and localized drops in temperature.
The corona, the outer part of the solar atmosphere, is made up of gas at temperatures millions of years old, so temperature drops are produced Huge balls of plasma 250 kilometers long.
Because of gravity, the fireballs just fall “Comets” towards the center Sol At a speed of 100 kilometers per second.
On earth, the “Comets” They occur when meteorites, or objects in space ranging from dust grains to small asteroids, enter our atmosphere at high speeds and burn up. Only a few meteorites reach the ground unbroken, and they create large craters.
The first images of this event were captured by the Solar Orbiter (Soloof the European Space Agency (ESAIn 2022, at a speed of 49 million kilometers.
“The inner solar corona is too hot to be probed by a spacecraft. However, Solo Orbit near enough Sol Sufficient to detect small-scale events such as the impact of rain on the corona, this allows a valuable indirect study of the coronal environment, which is important for understanding its composition and thermodynamics. “Detecting coronal showers is a big step forward for solar physics because it provides important clues about major solar mysteries, such as heating up to millions of degrees,” he says. Author in a press release.
“If humans were extraterrestrials, they could live on its surface Sol, We’ll continue to be rewarded with jaw-dropping shots of shooting stars,” Andolin quips, “but we’ll have to watch our heads.”
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There are more details to know
Because the crown Sol Thinner and less dense, scientists say They will publish their paper this month in Astronomy & AstrophysicsMost of these fireballs are believed to reach the solar surface intact.
Of course, there is a lot to know. To date, such impacts have never been observed, and observations reveal only that this process can produce brief, strong light with the upward rise of material and shock waves that reheat the gas above.
Likewise, another difference with “true shooting stars” is that their elimination process, when material leaves a trail behind the meteor’s path, is partially ionized and follows the magnetic field lines, acting like giant tubes. Channel gas.
Compression and the heat of the environment do not allow these torches to form tails.
