Experts have predicted that the solar wind could reach Earth between Friday and Saturday this week, but it does not pose a threat to life.
A huge new coronal hole has recently appeared in the Sun, drawing the attention of those who study this star and predicting “solar winds” to hit Earth this week, Insider reported.
Each means that the Sun’s new coronal hole is about 20 times larger than Earth and will carry winds of 1.8 million miles per hour that are estimated to reach this planet, Venus.
Now, experts have determined that these winds do not pose a threat to life on Earth or orbiting satellites, but can produce phenomena such as the northern lights or communication interference.
A discovery by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has revealed a vast dark zone on the Sun, near the equator.
What is a coronal hole?
Coronal holes are dark regions that appear in the last layer of the Sun, the corona. These are marked by the fact that the heats and densities are much lower than those around them, and therefore appear dark;
This is why the so-called solar winds are generated, which “instead of retaining the hot vapor on the surface of the Sun, these open magnetic field lines create a coronal hole to form through which the solar wind can escape. high altitudes. “velocities” explains the Space Weather portal.
In this way, “when the coronal hole is located near the center of the solar disk against the Earth, these hot gases flow towards the planet at a higher speed than the usual solar wind and create geomagnetic disturbances and increase aurora activity”.
Although this phenomenon will not be a danger, the location of the hole guarantees that it will have an effect on Earth, experts said.
“We’re in the equatorial mode safe enough to see the wind speed on Earth two days past noon,” Matthew Owens, professor of space physics at the University of Reading, told Insider.
“I would expect some rapid wind from that coronal hole to hit Earth around Friday night, into Saturday morning of this week,” he predicted.
Also, while no hazards are expected, the onslaught of solar winds can also produce geomagnetic storms that trigger radio blackouts, power outages, and more pronounced aurora borealis in different parts of the world.
The stream of solar wind flowing from the coronal hole in the Sun’s atmosphere approaches the Earth. The coronal hole is relatively small, although it could cause geomagnetic activity when it impacts the magnetic field around April 1. pic.twitter.com/WPKlbpmVgu
— 35 (@QuakeChaser35) March 28, 2023
