Astrophysicists tackle the Sun and one of physics' biggest unsolved problems

Nov 18, 2013 by Beth Kwon

Picture of the sun with a coronal hole 

(the large dark region at the bottom). Credit: NASA

Daniel Wolf Savin and Michael Hahn have been fascinated by the universe since they were boys. For Savin, a senior research scientist in the Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, discovering Albert Einstein at age 12 spurred the desire to "learn everything about the universe." Years later, Hahn, an associate research scientist who grew up 40 miles from Savin's home town in Connecticut, started gazing at the stars as a teenager; he eventually became president of the astronomy club at his alma mater, Carnegie Mellon.

Now the two have made a big leap toward cracking one of the biggest mysteries in astrophysics—why the corona, or plasma surrounding the sun, is so much hotter than the sun's surface.

The coronal heating problem, as it is known, is important because the corona is the source of solar wind, which is responsible for the northern and southern lights and can also disrupt telecommunications and power grids. "Satellites can be slowly pushed out of their orbits if they're deflected by the solar wind so if we can better understand the cause, we can create better models for space weather," says Savin, referring to conditions beyond the atmosphere.

Continue Learning: http://phys.org/news/2013-11-astrophysicists-tackle-sun-physics-biggest.html

Physicists monitoring huge solar event

Physicists monitoring huge solar event

Every 11 years, the Sun’s magnetic field —its magnetic north and south — flips, and the effects ripple throughout the solar system.
By Stanford University, Palo Alto, California | Published: Monday, November 11, 2013

Every 11 years, the Sun undergoes a complete makeover when the polarity of its magnetic field — its magnetic north and south — flips. The effects of this large-scale event ripple throughout the solar system.

Although the exact internal mechanism that drives the shift is not entirely understood, researchers at Stanford’s Wilcox Solar Observatory have monitored the Sun’s magnetic field on a daily basis since 1975 and can identify the process as it occurs on the Sun’s surface. This will be the fourth shift the observatory has monitored.

Continue Learning: http://www.astronomy.com/news/2013/11/physicists-monitoring-huge-solar-event

Veteran's Day Solar Flare

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of 

an X1.1 class flare in the early hours of Nov. 10, 2013. 

The image represents light with a wavelength of 131 

Angstroms, which is typically colorized in teal.

Image Credit:  NASA/SDO

The sun emitted a significant solar flare that peaked at 1:14 a.m. EST on Nov. 10, 2013. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however -- when intense enough -- they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.

Continue Learning: http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/2013-Veterans-day-solar-flare/#.UoDv7PmKK-0