NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day 22 February 2023: Sun trouble for Earth
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The Sun’s Photo voltaic cycle 25 commenced in 2019, and it is anticipated to get to its zenith in July 2025. This is the major cause of the Sun’s current outbursts. Flares, prominences, sunspots, coronal mass ejections are the widespread harbingers of solar exercise, as are plages and other related phenomena found at other wavelengths. However, the Earth is in for a tough period of time. A G5-class photo voltaic storm, which is the horrendously highly effective, putting the Earth can lead to the injury to satellites, interference in wi-fi communications like net, cell cellphone community and GPS, as properly as electricity grid failures. Terrifyingly, it can even disrupt electronics these as pacemakers.
NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day is a snapshot of the climbing activity on the area of the Sun. This image was captured two months in the past in a solitary colour of light identified as Hydrogen Alpha and numerous fascinating functions can be pictured on the photo voltaic surface. Solar prominences can be noticed becoming hurled out from the floor when the Sun’s edges are brighter because of to enhanced absorption of reasonably amazing photo voltaic gas.
The photograph was captured by astrophotographer Mehmet Ergun.
NASA’s description of the image
Our Sunshine is starting to be a fast paced place. Only two a long time in the past, the Sun was rising from a solar minimum so silent that months would go by without even a one sunspot. In distinction, currently this yr and very well in advance of schedule, our Sunshine is unusually lively, now nearing photo voltaic exercise stages seen a 10 years in the past all through the past solar optimum. Our more and more lively Sun was captured two months back sporting various intriguing characteristics.
The graphic was recorded in a solitary coloration of light called Hydrogen Alpha, colour-inverted, and phony colored. Spicules carpet a lot of the Sun’s confront. The brightening towards the Sun’s edges is triggered by enhanced absorption of reasonably great photo voltaic fuel and identified as limb darkening. Just outdoors the Sun’s disk, various scintillating prominences protrude, when prominences on the Sun’s deal with are identified as filaments and display as light streaks. Magnetically tangled energetic regions are both equally darkish and light-weight and comprise interesting sunspots. As our Sun’s magnetic field winds toward solar utmost in excess of the future number of many years, regardless of whether the Sun’s higher exercise will keep on to increase is unidentified.
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Source website link Today, NASA has released an Astronomy Picture of the Day which shows a powerful beam of plasma originating from a sunspot on the Sun’s surface and heading toward Earth. This phenomenon, known as a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), is responsible for some of the most powerful space weather events that can affect our planet, and has been the focus of much research from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO).
The image was taken on February 22, 2023, with the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument aboard the SDO. It shows a large sunspot on the Sun’s visible disk surrounded by a thin stream of ionized gas, or plasma, from a CME. This plasma is composed of protons, electrons, and other charged particles, and its ejection can cause significant problems for Earth.
The particles within the beam follow magnetic field lines away from the Sun, and upon reaching the Earth’s atmosphere, they can interact with the planet’s magnetic field to cause geomagnetic storms. These disruptions can interfere with satellite and GPS systems, interrupt signals sent between communication devices, and cause electrical power outages. They can also create beautiful auroras near the poles as the energetic particles interact with the atmosphere.
While these CMEs can be incredibly powerful, they travel so slowly compared to the speeds of light and radio waves that it takes our planet around three days to encounter their effects. Knowing this, scientists have been able to increase the accuracy of their predictions for space weather events and increase preparedness for the potential disruptions that can accompany them.
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory continues to monitor this sunspot and the activity on its surrounding surface. As the plasma streams from the CME move closer to Earth, its understanding of the phenomenon’s effects could help reduce its impacts.
