The Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) in California is becoming a valuable tool for astronomers wanting to understand more about activities on the sun. By carefully studying events like solar flares and coronal mass ejections, astronomers are able to uncover how processes take place in our solar companion.
The BBSO is operated and managed by astronomers at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT).
Sunspots - dark areas seen on the surface of the sun were first discovered by pioneering astronomer Galileo. This unexpected finding at the start of the 17th century was the first evidence that the sun is not perfect. This idea found significant opposition in the Catholic Church.
Today, we know that sunspots are formed by tightly-twisted magnetic fields on the surface of our stellar companion. These fields prevent heat from rising up from lower layers, which makes the area look dark. Sunspots can be up to ten times as wide as the Earth - roughly the size of the planet Jupiter.
Astronomers could not understand, however, how these fields, which can last for days, remain so stable in the highly-turbulent solar surface. There are no known forces holding the magnetic fields together, and they appear to stay together through internal forces. Understanding how these features stay intact is one of the great questions facing solar astronomers and astrophysicists today.
Researchers from the NJIT presented their study to scientists gathered at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society. Video captured by the group from the Garden State showed a sunspot that lasted several hours but did not produce any flares. This film, however, suggested the solar feature was held together by maintaining a balance between magnetic force pressing outward on the spot, and gas pressure attempting to collapse the system.
"Investigating sunspots is much more than a matter of curiosity and the desire to increase the fund of basic scientific knowledge. When sunspots that are close to each other have magnetic fields with opposite polarities, they can produce powerful flares and solar storms. On Earth, this can severely damage communications and power infrastructure," researcher Alexander Kosovichev of BBSO/NJIT explained.
The sun itself, like all stars in the prime of their lives, is caught in a balancing act. While gravity attempts to collapse our star, pressure created by thermonuclear reactions at the core push outward, against the ever-present pull.
Similar, but even more powerful, magnetic storms have been detected on other stars. These could subject life on world orbiting these stellar bodies to frequent extinctions. They could even make life impossible in such planetary systems.
