Astronomers have been stuck by the sun’s magnetic field while striving to understand where it originates.
This magnetic field is crucial as it drives various solar phenomena, including sunspots, solar flares and coronal mass ejections, which can impact Earth’s space weather.
But pinpointing the exact source of the sun’s magnetic field has remained an elusive goal.
The team developed advanced numerical simulations to model the sun's magnetic field.
Our hypothesis is that the magnetic cycle and the torsional oscillations are different manifestations of the same physical process," he further said.
A team of international researchers is inching closer to solving a solar mystery that has puzzled scientists for centuries. Astronomers have been stuck by the sun’s magnetic field while striving to understand where it originates.
This magnetic field is crucial as it drives various solar phenomena, including sunspots, solar flares and coronal mass ejections, which can impact Earth’s space weather. It also has the potention to disrupt radio transmissions and power grids on Earth.
The first key observations of the sun’s magnetic activity date back to the early 17th century, with Galileo Galilei’s pioneering work on sunspots. But pinpointing the exact source of the sun’s magnetic field has remained an elusive goal.
However, in the study led by Geoffrey Vasil from Edinburgh University which involved conducting a series of calculations on a NASA supercomputer, the researchers pinpointed the origin of the sun’s magnetic field to be nearly 30,000 km below the sun's surface. The study was published in the journal Nature.
This finding challenges earlier theories that placed the source much deeper, around 200,000 km beneath the surface.
The paper's co-author Daniel Lecoanet from Northwestern University, said “This work proposes a new hypothesis for how the sun’s magnetic field is generated that better matches solar observations and, we hope, could be used to make better predictions of solar activity."
The team developed advanced numerical simulations to model the sun's magnetic field.
Torsional oscillations
Unlike previous models, this new model included torsional oscillations, a pattern of gas and plasma movement within and around the sun.
Since the sun is not solid, its rotation varies with latitude, and both the magnetic cycle and torsional oscillations share an 11-year cycle.
Watch | Cancer rate in younger people rising sharply as per new research × “Because the wave has the same period as the magnetic cycle, it has been thought that these phenomena were linked,” Lecoanet explained.
“However, the traditional ‘deep theory’ does not explain where torsional oscillations come from. An intriguing clue is that these are only near the surface of the sun. Our hypothesis is that the magnetic cycle and the torsional oscillations are different manifestations of the same physical process," he further said.
(With inputs from agencies)
