Magnetic fields in sun rise at 500 kilometers per hour

 Science Stats Astronomy Magnetic fields in sun rise at 500 kilometers per hour

New estimate is lower than previous

By Christopher Crockett 9:00am, August 9, 2016

RISE UP Coils of magnetism that erupt from the sun, seen in this false color ultraviolet image from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, are pushed up in parcels of gas, a new study suggests.

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

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About 20,000 kilometers beneath the sun’s surface, magnetic fields rise no faster than about 500 kilometers per hour. That speed (roughly one-third of previous estimates) is about the same speed that gas rises and falls within the sun, implying that moving parcels of gas help steer magnetic fields toward the surface, researchers report July 13 in Science Advances.

Aaron Birch of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Göttingen, Germany, and colleagues estimated the speed by combining observations of the sun’s surface with computer simulations of how gas moves within the hot orb. By studying the sun’s inner workings, researchers hope to understand what drives sunspots and flares — the blemishes and eruptions triggered by magnetic fields punching through the surface.

500

kilometers per hour

Speed of the sun"s magnetic fields

Citations

A.C. Birch et al. A low upper limit on the subsurface rise speed of solar active regions. Science Advances. Published online July 13, 2016. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.1600557.

Further Reading

T. Sumner. Young sun’s super solar flares helped set early Earth up for life. Science News. Vol. 189, June 25, 2016, p. 10.

C. Crockett. A loopy look at sunspots. Science News. Vol. 188, July 11, 2015, p. 32.

C. Crockett. Some of sun’s magnetic fields may act more like forests. Science News. Vol. 188, July 11, 2015, p. 16.

T. Sumner. Supersized sunspot is largest in decades. Science News Online, October 24, 2014.

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Magnetic fields in sun rise at 500 kilometers per hour