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Jilly_in_VA

(10,838 posts)
Tue Feb 7, 2023, 12:00 PM Feb 2023

Something Strange Is Happening on the Sun, and We've Never Seen It Before

This past week, a part of the sun’s surface broke off and started circling the sun’s north pole almost as if it were a giant polar vortex––and scientists don’t know why.

Space weather forecaster Tamitha Skov posted a video of the phenomena to Twitter, sharing her excitement.

“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,” she wrote. “Implications for understanding the Sun's atmospheric dynamics above 55° here cannot be overstated!”

The find is just the latest in a series of interesting space observations thanks to the capabilities of the James Webb Space Telescope. According to NASA, solar prominence is a large bright feature that extends outward from the Sun's surface. Prominences consist of hydrogen and helium, and usually erupt when a structure becomes unstable and bursts outward, releasing the plasma.

Scott McIntosh, a solar physicist and deputy director at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, told Space.com that he has never seen a vortex like this but notes that something odd usually happens at the sun's 55 degree latitudes once every solar cycle.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7bm83/something-strange-is-happening-on-the-sun-and-weve-never-seen-it-before

It isn't that it's never happened, likely, but we never had the equipment to see it!

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peppertree

(22,850 posts)
3. And you can bet some Repugs will throw money at him for doing so
Tue Feb 7, 2023, 01:57 PM
Feb 2023

That party is a natural fit for con-men.

Jerry2144

(2,612 posts)
4. Santos actually took those pictures
Tue Feb 7, 2023, 01:58 PM
Feb 2023

When he was walking on the surface of the sun. But he did it at night

GreenWave

(9,005 posts)
6. Let's hope Mother Earth doesn't try to imitate.
Tue Feb 7, 2023, 02:52 PM
Feb 2023

Imagine a part of Earth breaking off (where Magats have gathered) and start circling our polar region!

Should Biden shoot it down?

 

Hestia

(3,818 posts)
7. Well, since earth's core appears to be changing polarity, which hasn't happened in 70/80-ish
Tue Feb 7, 2023, 03:04 PM
Feb 2023

years, is there some sort of connection? Also, seismic activity & lava flows? Certainly has been an uptick in such activity. 80+ years since the last huge earthquake in Turkey/Syria (killed 13,000+) people, which extremely sadly (yeah, I know, grammar) seems to be the trajectory of this earthquake.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/earth-inner-core-reverse-rotation
https://phys.org/news/2018-12-earth-magnetic-poles-flip.html

GreenWave

(9,005 posts)
8. What I understand is
Tue Feb 7, 2023, 05:24 PM
Feb 2023

polarity has not switched since humans have been on Earth and it is way past due to happen.

The movement of the Great South Atlantic Anomaly which covers a broad section of the South Atlantic and South America is drifting and could cause a polarity shift. There are ancient magnetic rocks in the oldest past of the world, South Africa, that are indicating the shift is nigh

https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4840

https://strangesounds.org/2018/03/south-atlantic-anomaly-pole-shift-earth-magnetic-poles-may-be-getting-ready-to-flip.html

I can't find right now where I saw the report. It did say during a pole reversal oxygen levels will be lowered considerably.

https://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2012-poleReversal.html

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X14001629

 

Hestia

(3,818 posts)
9. Well, I am talking about the earth's Core polarity - if you click on the links in my post, you'll
Tue Feb 7, 2023, 11:13 PM
Feb 2023

see where 70-80 years is mentioned.

Wow, oxygen levels lowered - great, that's all we need is a bunch of MAGAt's with oxygen deprivation

Irish_Dem

(56,107 posts)
10. I wonder if there is a bi-directionality between the sun and the earth.
Tue Feb 7, 2023, 11:53 PM
Feb 2023

As earth changes, does this impact the sun in some way and vice versa.

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