Typical hurricanes are easy to see in a satellite image: moving clouds surround a quiet eye. These hurricanes usually occur in the lower layers of the atmosphere, which are closer to the earth’s surface, and release heavy rains and strong winds.
But according to a recent study, space hurricanes are quite different animals.
The research, published in the journal Nature Communications, describes the first ever space hurricane. The satellites observed it in August 2014 – an eruption with a quiet center of more than 125 miles above the North Pole.
While regular hurricanes fill the air, this space hurricane was an edema of plasma, a type of super hot, charged gas found in the solar system. And instead of rain, this hurricane rained down electrons.
Michael Lockwood, a space scientist at Reading University and co-author of the new study, said: “Yet, it was uncertain that space plasma hurricanes existed, so it is unreliable to prove this with such striking observations.” A press release.
The space storm was more than 620 miles wide, and high in the sky – it formed in the ionosphere layer, between 50 and 600 miles. Wood Wood and his colleagues used satellite data to create a 3D model of the storm.
Space hurricanes can wreak havoc on satellites
The space storm lasted eight hours, rotating clockwise. According to the researchers, a slightly spiral weapon protruded from its center like its spiral galaxy.
NGC 1566 Spiral galaxy, as photographed by NASA’s Hubble Telescope.
ESA / Hubble and NASA
By plugging satellite data into a computer model, Lockwood and his associates were able to reproduce the storm and find out what caused it. The results showed that the atmosphere above the sun, the charged particles emitted by the corona, were to blame.
This constant flow of solar particles and coronal plasma is known as solar wind; It travels at 1 million miles per hour.
“These space storms must be created by unusually large and rapid transfers of solar wind energy and charged particles into the Earth’s upper atmosphere.”
As the solar wind reaches Earth, it encounters the planet’s magnetic field. Due to the liquid iron and nickel circulating in its outer core, there is a region of the earth that gives birth to electric currents. The resulting magnetosphere protects the planet from the sun’s deadly radiation, but it also retains a small layer of plasma from the solar wind.
Earth’s magnetic field protects the planet from solar radiation.
NASA Goddard / Belly Desrocher
Typically, the solar wind sees this protective cover. But sometimes, incoming charge particles and plasma interact with either trapped plasma or electric currents producing a field. Such interactions disrupt the magnetosphere.
The 2014 space storm was one such disruption.
In particular, the study authors suggest that the interaction between the Earth’s magnetic field and the Sun’s magnetic field bits – solar wind transport – helped create these storms.
In general, magnetic fields do not mix. But if they come close to each other, part of the spheres can re-sign and sometimes merge – creating a new system of magnetic resonance. This is possible on the day of the space storm: a new system was created above the Earth’s magnetic north pole by the flow of solar wind energy.
Once that happens, the storm will act as a channel through space into the Earth’s atmosphere – scattering down some electrons from the Earth’s armor.
According to the study authors, this microscopic rain could have wreaked havoc on our high-frequency radio communications, radar-detection systems, or satellite technology. This is because charged solar particles that pass through the Earth’s magnetic field are known to cause defects in computers and circuitry on satellites and international space stations. Fortunately in this case, no issues were observed.
Other planets may also have space storms
Planetarium Shaw of the American Natural History Museum, part of “World’s Bind Earth”, example of Jupiter’s magnetic field
Eileen Woodward / Business Insider
Earth is not the only planet to experience hurricanes: Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter have similar weather patterns. But this is the first time that scientists have seen a hurricane in the atmosphere above any planet in the solar system.
Lockwood thinks that any planet or lunar space with a magnetosphere could experience a hurricane. It contains all the planets in our solar system except Venus and Mars.
“Plasma and magnetic fields in the planet’s atmosphere exist throughout the universe, so the findings suggest that space storms should be a widespread phenomenon,” he said.
