Published 18:14 IST, August 12th 2019
'Sun Blast': NASA detects first interplanetary shock on Sun, space fans wowed & scared by stunning visuals
NASA posted on Sunday, that its Magnetospheric Multiscale mission (MNS) has recorded the world's first high-resolution measurements of an interplanetary shock made of particles amd electromagnetic waves launched by the Sun
What does the explosions on the sun look like?
This question has been recently answered by NASA when it posted on Sunday, that its Magnetospheric Multiscale mission (MNS) has recorded the world's first high-resolution measurements of an interplanetary shock made of particles amd electromagnetic waves launched by the Sun.
In the stunning animation posted by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Conceptual Image Lab, the Sun seen as a red and fiery glowing ball is seen to emit a chunk of particles and waves off its boiling surface in an apparant shock.
What is interplanetary shock?
An interplanetary shock is a collisionless shock, where articles transfer energy through electromagnetic fields instead of directly bouncing into one another, according to NASA. While this phenomena occurs around the universe the MNS studies collisionless shocks around Earth, says NASA. Interplanetary shocks start at the Sun, which continually releases streams of charged particles called the solar wind.
What did NASA capture?
Explaining what exactly the MNS' measurements mean, NASA stated that the using unprecedentedly fast and high-resolution instruments , speeding shock waves passing the spacecraft in just half a second were captured by the probe. Scientists analyzing the data had noticed a clump of ions from the solar wind, according to NASA. Shortly after, they saw a second clump of ions, created by ions already in the area that had bounced off the shock as it passed by.
Space fans minds have been blown, just like the 'Sun shock':
Updated 18:25 IST, August 12th 2019