Sun's explosions are particle accelerators

[n2doc]

By Alexis Madrigal May 21, 2010 | 6:49 pm | Categories: Space


The flashes of white light accompanying some solar flares are caused by the sun’s acceleration of electrons to speeds greater than half the speed of light.

The phenomenon’s new explanation derives from data recorded from a 2006 solar flare. The presence of high-energy X-rays in the same spot that scientists saw visible light tipped them off that some kind of non-thermal process was generating the light.

“These explosions are particle accelerators,” said Säm Krucker, of the Space Science Laboratories at the University of California, Berkeley. “The whole surprising thing with these flares’ light is that it could simply be heat. But that’s not the case.”


Solar flares occur when the sun’s magnetic field lines rearrange and reconnect, releasing tremendous amounts of energy. There are different types of flares, which can generate geomagnetic storms of Earth, and only some of them are accompanied by the white light flares. These were first observed in 1859 by astronomer Richard Carrington, but no one really knew how they were produced until the new observations by the Japanese satellite Hinode and the NASA SMEX mission RHESSI.

Now, it looks as if the extremely powerful electromagnetic fields somehow deliver enormous amounts of energy into particles in the sun’s photosphere. It’s not unlike what humans do at a much, much smaller scale in particle accelerators like the Large Hadron Collider.



Read More http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/05/the-sun-our-particle-accelerator/

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. Saying that magnetic lines of force reconnect is like saying that

latitude and longitude lines disconnect and reconnect. Neither are real. Cool article though.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

2. Some kind of miracle.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. You have absolutely no idea how magnets work, nor z pinch in stellar

regions, nor many other things that go bump in the night.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

4. This from the person who once said...

an electrical current is required to produce a magnetic field?

[HysteryDiagnosis]

5. Picky picky you... but if that's what does it for you please play on. n/t

[HysteryDiagnosis]

6. Magnetic reconnection is from what I've read.... still a theory.

www.phys.washington.edu/users/sharpe/486/schillacif.pdf

V. CONCLUSION
As a theory, magnetic reconnection is still undergoing revolutionary changes. Because
plasma systems are so complicated, computer simulations in three dimensions are only now
coming into their own. But these are driving new understanding, proving revolutionary ideas
and changing the way physicists think about reconnection. Whistler driven reconnection is
very promising, and is quite probably a very good description of the process for certain
conditions. There is still much to be learned however, and certainly more experimental
study of reconnection in natural processes is necessary.