Huge 'solar tornadoes' 1000 miles wide captured heating sun's atmosphere to millions of degrees centigrade - and find could power 'clean' reactors on Earth
A space tornado can actually result from solar windstorms that produce funnel-shaped clouds of charged particles. The solar wind blows at 600,000 to 2,000,000 miles per hour.
solar tornadoes carry the energy from the energy reservoir below the Sun's surface, called the convection zone, to the outer atmosphere in the form of magnetic waves.
One of the major problems in modern astrophysics is why the atmosphere of a star, like our own Sun, is considerably hotter than its surface?
It is understood that the energy originates from below the Sun's surface, but how this massive amount of energy travels up to the solar atmosphere surrounding it is a mystery. It is believed that we have found evidence in the form of rotating magnetic structures -- solar tornadoes -- that channel the necessary energy in the form of magnetic waves to heat the magnetized solar plasma. It is hoped that the process could be replicated here on Earth one day to energize plasma in tokamak that are believed to be a future device to produce completely clean energy.
Scientists viewed the solar tornadoes in the outer atmosphere of the Sun, stretching thousands of miles from the giant star's surface by using both satellite and ground-based telescopes. They then created 3D-layered sequence of images of the tornadoes and simulated their evolution with state-of-the-art numerical codes using the magnetic imprints detected by their high-resolution, cutting-edge telescopes.
Above, Telescope images form a tower showing how 'solar tornadoes' work
A simulated image of solar tornado
A space tornado can actually result from solar windstorms that produce funnel-shaped clouds of charged particles. The solar wind blows at 600,000 to 2,000,000 miles per hour.
solar tornadoes carry the energy from the energy reservoir below the Sun's surface, called the convection zone, to the outer atmosphere in the form of magnetic waves.
One of the major problems in modern astrophysics is why the atmosphere of a star, like our own Sun, is considerably hotter than its surface?
It is understood that the energy originates from below the Sun's surface, but how this massive amount of energy travels up to the solar atmosphere surrounding it is a mystery. It is believed that we have found evidence in the form of rotating magnetic structures -- solar tornadoes -- that channel the necessary energy in the form of magnetic waves to heat the magnetized solar plasma. It is hoped that the process could be replicated here on Earth one day to energize plasma in tokamak that are believed to be a future device to produce completely clean energy.
Scientists viewed the solar tornadoes in the outer atmosphere of the Sun, stretching thousands of miles from the giant star's surface by using both satellite and ground-based telescopes. They then created 3D-layered sequence of images of the tornadoes and simulated their evolution with state-of-the-art numerical codes using the magnetic imprints detected by their high-resolution, cutting-edge telescopes.
A simulated image of solar tornado
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