Parker Probe reveals sun's complex magnetic engine
Get the Health newsletter
Daily health & science — research, biotech, public health, the studies worth knowing. Free.
- Southwest Research Institute researchers used NASA Parker Solar Probe data to show heavy ions shoot out of solar reconnection events in tight, beam-like streams, while protons scatter into wider, wave-driven flows — contradicting current particle-acceleration models.
- Dr. Mihir Desai of SwRI, the study's lead author, said the finding "rewrites our understanding of reconnection," noting that protons and heavy ions display distinct spectral signatures that existing models cannot explain.
- The results, published in The Astrophysical Journal, establish the sun as a local laboratory for the same high-energy physics that drives black holes and supernovae, according to Desai.
- NASA's Parker Solar Probe collects its measurements by flying through the sun's corona three times per year, capturing data no previous mission could obtain at such proximity.
- Magnetic reconnection — where magnetic field lines converge, snap apart, and reconnect — powers solar flares and coronal mass ejections that drive space weather capable of disrupting power grids, satellites, and GPS on Earth.
- The research is part of NASA's Living With a Star program, managed by Goddard Space Flight Center, with the spacecraft built and operated by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
Why it matters: Because magnetic reconnection directly drives solar flares and coronal mass ejections that disrupt electrical grids, satellite communications, and navigation systems, more accurate particle-acceleration models improve space weather forecasts and the protection of critical infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.
