Published 19:54 IST, January 9th 2021
Scientists reveal details about mysterious sunquakes and its origins
Sunquakes-seismic activity on the sun release energy in the form of waves that ripple along the Sun’s surface, followed by a solar flare.
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NASA has revealed new details about the mysterious origin of sunquakes-seismic activity on the sun during solar flares. These earthquake-like events release energy in the form of waves that ripple along the Sun’s surface, followed by a solar flare. For long, scientists thought that these quakes were driven by magnetic forces or heating of the outer atmosphere. However, the latest results by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, have found something different.
Mystery behind sunquakes
It all started in July 2011 when SDO observed a sunquake with unusually sharp ripples emanating from a moderately strong solar flare. Scientists managed to track the waves using a technique called helioseismic holography. As a result of this, the scientists saw the surface ripples of a sunquake emerging from deep beneath the solar surface right after a flare occurred. The release by NASA read, “The scientists believe that these waves were driven by a submerged source, which was in turn somehow triggered by the solar flare in the atmosphere above. The new findings might help explain a long-standing mystery about sunquakes: why some of their characteristics look remarkably different from the flares that trigger them”.
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Scientists were not able to completely identify exactly what mechanism causes these quakes. However, the scientists plan to continue to study the mechanisms by looking at other sunquake. The findings have been published in September in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
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In a separate incident, NASA recently detected a giant nuclear bubble of VLF (very low frequency) or very low radio frequency created by human activities is now blocking space radiations. NASA also revealed that this nuclear bubble of VLF was first detected around three years ago in the year 2017. The human-made frequencies such as the one used for coded or long-distance messaging like contacting submarines deep underwater have been "leaking" into space. This leaked VLF has created a bubble-like barrier around Earth's atmosphere which is reportedly protecting Earth from charged, radioactive particles. It is also said that the nuclear blast/ blasts have turned into belts of radioactivity around Earth which is now further away than it was in the 1960s.
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(Image Credits: RepresentativeImage/Unsplash)
19:54 IST, January 9th 2021