This year, as it approaches the apex of its solar cycle, the Sun has been very active, launching three solar flares, 18 coronal mass ejections, and one geomagnetic storm just in the past week. However, this situation has not always existed. There have been instances when the star in our solar system appears to be asleep and the sunspots on its surface entirely disappear.
Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Kolkata’s Center of Excellence in Space Sciences India have revealed what happens when the sun is completely silent and how the star takes back its energy to burst with life and send threatening flares throughout the solar system.
According to research presented in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the polar and interior regions of the star continue to churn even while the sun is sound asleep. Researchers discovered that even during these quiet times, the Sun’s core dynamo system, which supports the solar cycle, is still hard at work.
WHEN SLEEPS THE SUN?
There have been times in the past when the Sun’s activity was at an all-time low and there were no sunspots. The grand minimum, which lasts for this time period, is characterized by sharp drops in solar light and particle emission.
According to astronomers, the growth and fading of the frequency of solar activity seen on the star’s surface abruptly stopped between 1645 and 1715. Such minima have been observed all throughout Sun’s 4.6 billion-year life, thus this isn’t an isolated occurrence.
The Sun’s magnetic dynamo is still functioning inside the Sun throughout periods of intense inactivity known as solar grand minima, according to computational methods of the Sun’s magnetic cycle. (Image: IISER)
While the activity on the Sun’s surface is well understood, little is known about what occurs in the northern and inner regions during this time. Although it is generally accepted that the Sun’s large-scale magnetic cycle cuts off during these stages, the new study shows that this is not necessarily the case.
WHAT FIND THE RESEARCHERS?
According to research done by IISER Ph.D. candidate Chitradeep Saha, Sanghita Chandra, and Professor Dibyendu Nandy, magnetic fields in the Sun’s interior are still rather active even during these phases that appear to be inert. The convection zone continues to experience mild cycles of magnetic activity, which is unable to create sunspots.
Additionally, the scientists showed how the solar convection zone’s plasma, which functions as a clock and propels weak magnetic cycles inside the Sun during what were previously thought to be periods of great inactivity, is constantly turning.
“Our 10,000-year-long computer simulations illuminate the processes that continue in the solar interior (convection zone) and at the Polar Areas even when there are for an extended period of time, known as the great solar minimum, a dangerously low number of sunspot eruptions on the solar surface. Over time, the star’s magnetic activity finally returns to normal thanks to the constant motion of the plasma and turbulent oscillations in the convection zone “IndiaToday.in was informed by Chitradeep Saha, the paper’s principal author.
Written by Futuristic Frog