Something weird is happening with the Sun, and while it baffles scientists, it also makes them quite excited.
Earlier this week, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope made an extraordinary observation that has scientists concerned.
Dr. Tamitha Skov, a space weather physicist who frequently publishes updates on social media, tweeted that material from a northern prominence had broken away from the main filament and was whirling in a large polar vortex around the Sun’s north pole.
Piece Of Sun Breaks Off
It essentially means that scientists discovered a massive portion of the sun had broken off and was circling in a polar vortex.
“Talk about Polar Vortex! Material from a northern prominence just broke away from the main filament & is now circulating in a massive polar vortex around the north pole of our Star. Implications for understanding the Sun’s atmospheric dynamics above 55° here cannot be overstated!” Dr. Tamitha Skov tweeted.
While Scott McIntosh, a solar physicist and deputy director at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, has never seen a vortex like this, he does know that something weird happens near the Sun’s 55-degree latitude once every solar cycle or 11 years.
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What Is Solar Prominence?
According to McInstosh, it could be tied to the reversal of the sun’s magnetic field that occurs every solar cycle. It’s difficult to detect that part of the star since the Sun can only be seen from the ecliptic plane, which is the plane in which planets orbit.
“Once every solar cycle, it forms at the 55-degree latitude and it starts to march up to the solar poles. It’s very curious. There is a big ‘why’ question around it. Why does it only move toward the pole one time and then disappear and then come back, magically, three or four years later in exactly the same region? “Scott McIntosh told Space.com.
A solar prominence is a huge and luminous feature that extends from the sun’s surface. They are attached to the star’s surface and extend into the heated outer atmosphere known as the corona.
Prominences form in a day but might linger for months in the corona. It is made of hydrogen and helium.
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