Site icon Wonderful Engineering

Scientists Have Solved A 60-Year-Old Mystery About Explosions On The Sun

The secret to mysteries is underlying problems, and once those problems are solved, then such mysteries are not mysteries anymore. In a similar set of circumstances, NASA has managed to unravel a mystery that had eluded them for 60 long years. A phenomenon called “Fast magnetic reconnection” has been a problem for scientists for a long time due to some unclear directions, but recently they published a report in which it was stated that some technicalities of the mystery are now being resolved, which would assist in delivering “green energy” on Earth through fusion reactions.

Scientists working under NASA’s project “Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS)” have come up with a reasoning and a critical thinking approach to portray the concept of fast magnetic reconnection in the light of some comprehensive facts collected. They have quoted the details based on research that how the transformational procedure of energy takes place in the plasma. It has been discovered that magnetic energy is immediately converted into heat energy as soon as it reaches plasma. The process is fast reconnection, which occurs at a considerable rate. However, this happens only in a collisionless plasma state, as per the new study published. Having said that, researchers concluded that plasma is found in the collisionless state, particularly in locations where this fast reconnection arises.

The fast reconnection process will be catalyzed by the “Hall effect,” which is the interaction between the magnetic field and electric current. “And by understanding how magnetic reconnection works, we will be able to better forecast phenomena that might affect us on Earth, such as geomagnetic storms and solar flares. And understanding how reconnection occurs will aid energy research because researchers will be able to better regulate magnetic fields in fusion devices, “claimed Barbara Giles, MMS project scientist, and NASA research scientist.

It should be noted that nuclear fusion reactors always opt for “powerful magnets” for the conservation and application of plasma in nuclear reactions since plasma is susceptible to magnetic fields. Thus, to further validate their findings from this mystery, scientists at NASA are trying to send four spacecraft orbiting the earth in a pyramid arrangement in order to discover the active mechanism of fast reconnection of plasma there. The gathered facts would then be applied to explore the potential of nuclear fusion, which is the source of providing green and imperishable energy on earth. As a consequence of the observations of the sun, it has been demonstrated that the blazing flares deliver sufficient energy through which we can power the whole Earth for about 20,000 years, which is definitely a big hit.

Exit mobile version