Via a series of laboratory experiments and models, a new study describes the spicules as being like drops of paint getting bounced around on the surface of a speaker as music plays. It's quite an unusual analogy, but the underlying physics seem to be the same.
When a liquid is placed above a speaker that's pumping out audio, it becomes unstable and starts vibrating above a certain frequency. If that liquid is made up of what are known as long polymer chains – think paint or shampoo, for example – then the liquid is fired away from the speaker in elongated jets.The same process could well be happening above the Sun, the study authors contend.
"Spurred by the visual similarity between the solar spicules and the jets of paint on the speaker, we investigated the roles of magnetic fields on the Sun using state-of-the-art numerical simulations of the solar plasma,"In the same way that polymer chains keep jets of paint stable above a speaker, the magnetic field around the Sun can keep the jets of plasma stable enough to shoot in a particular direction away from the star.
The new research challenges the existing consensus that the physics behind short solar spicules are different from the physics behind longer solar spicules. Both could in fact be created by the same convection forces in the plasma just below the visible solar surface . "The solar plasma can be imagined as threaded by magnetic field lines, much like the long chains in polymer solutions,"
ninjasniperpon
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: BGR - 🏆 234. / 63 Read more »
Source: RollingStone - 🏆 483. / 51 Read more »
Source: verge - 🏆 94. / 67 Read more »
Source: foodandwine - 🏆 366. / 59 Read more »
Source: universetoday - 🏆 297. / 63 Read more »