NASA released their most comprehensive video of a mysterious process on the sun known as magnetic reconnection, which was incredibly caught in action by NASA spacecrafts.
According to NASA, magnetic reconnection is responsible for all kinds of explosions in the sun like solar flares and coronal mass ejections. This phenomenon occurs when magnetic lines come together, break apart, and connect with another magnetic field, exchanging partners to produce a jolt of magnetic energy.
Scientists are still looking for ways to fully understand the process of magnetic reconnection, which flings radiation and particles across our solar system that could affect near-Earth satellites and radio communication. However, NASA said that it is hard to study the process because magnetic fields are invisible.
As part of their goal of understanding the mystery behind magnetic reconnection, NASA used computer modeling and scant sampling observations collection from solar flares to understand the process.
Yang Su, a solar scientist from the University of Gras in Austria, admitted that the science community is still in the process of decoding the mystery behind solar flares. Su said that they previously had images, but most of those images were inconclusive.
However, after searching for new visual evidences from the Solar Dynamics Observatory of NASA, Su revealed the new piece of visual evidence - direct images of magnetic reconnection in action during one of the recent solar flares. Most of the images were already seen before, but Su and his colleagues discovered comprehensive information that they can use to improve their models of magnetic reconnection.
"This is the first time we've seen the entire, detailed structure of this process, because of the high quality data from SDO. It supports the whole picture of reconnection, with visual evidence," Su said.
Su added that the images, which were confirmed by their group using Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI), will help scientists make estimates on how quick magnetic lines reconnect during the process.
NASA will conduct a deeper study on magnetic reconnection starting next year by launching the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS), which is composed of four spacecrafts that will pass through magnetic reconnection as it happens in the magnetosphere of the earth.
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