A Solar Orbiter probe movie a “plasma snake” passing through the atmosphere Sol🇧🇷 The curious phenomenon, observed on 5 September, had a wave motion due to the deformation of the magnetic field and was caused by its interaction with a flow of cold plasma along the solar surface.
The journey lasted about 3 hours, although the European Space Agency (ESA) has released a video with the “snake” moving from side to side for a few seconds in time lapse mode.
The fact is even more incredible when we consider the vastness of the distances involved, in which the plasma it was traveling at a speed of 170 kilometers per second. to wade!
The phenomenon originated in a region of intense activity and may have been a precursor to a great solar flare observed later. These bursts of energy, you call coronal mass ejectionthey hurl billions of tons of plasma and other particles into space.
This ejected material creates a powerful wave in the interplanetary medium, with effects felt on Earth. This can lead to geomagnetic storms, with the potential to disrupt technological systems such as satellites, radio communications, power grids and navigation signals.
An occasional coronal mass ejection still lights up the skies dawns🇧🇷 The glaring lights can be seen more often in the polar regions, where the earth’s magnetic field is weaker, amplifying the entry of particles into the atmosphere.
The solar flare that followed the event was one of the strongest detected by Solar Orbiter to date. It is worth noting that the ESA satellite in collaboration with NASA was launched in early 2020 and recently completed 1,000 days of activity.
Other instruments and satellites have also been able to capture the energetic particles emitted, such as NASA’s Parker Solar Probe.
