The Parker Solar Probe flew close enough to the sun to spot how the solar wind forms before it flows toward Earth and creates auroras and space weather
A solar mission that has been spiraling closer to the sun to unravel its secrets has flown near enough to our star’s surface to make a key discovery. Data from the Parker Solar Probe has uncovered the source of solar wind, a stream of energized particles that flow from the corona, or the sun’s hot outer atmosphere, toward Earth.
” The spacecraft’s data revealed that the coronal holes act like showerheads, where jets appear on the sun’s surface in the form of bright spots, marking where the magnetic field passes in and out of the photosphere. As magnetic fields pass each other, moving in opposite directions within these funnels on the solar surface, they break and reconnect, which sends charged particles flying out of the sun.
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