Scientists say mysterious, inexplicably fast waves are coming out of the Sun at three times the speed previously thought possible, new research has found, as NASA expects rays to hit Earth sometime on Monday, March 28.
Solar storm to strike Earth on Monday
NASA scientists say a coronal mass ejection (CME) from the Sun will strike Earth around midnight on March 28, part of a March 25 solar flare that caused a radio blackout over Southeast Asia.
However, the Express reported that the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA) believes it will strike earlier.
The area activity is part of a new sunspot group or active region, and its central part is as large as two Earths. The region, labeled AR2975, had produced multiple C-class flares over several days, Earthsky.org reported.
Scientists say we should expect elevated geomagnetic activity and a good chance for auroras.
Mysterious waves traveling at 3X the speed ever thought possible
Scientists described high-frequency retrograde (HFR) vorticity waves that appear to be making swirling motions near the equator of the Sun. The mysterious part is the rotation of the waves in the north is always anti-symmetric to the rotation in the southern hemisphere. However, these mysterious waves are moving in the opposite direction, to the right of the Sun’s rotation, SciTechDaily reported.
What is most mysterious to scientists is that the waves coming out of the Sun are moving at triple the speed that was ever thought possible previously, according to new research, the Independent reported.
Scientists are calling the waves a “true mystery” and say they suggest there could be other, previously undiscovered physical processes at work.
Further, the waves are moving three times faster than what is allowed by hydrodynamics alone, as established by the current predicted theory.
The study, entitled Discovery of high-frequency-retrograde vorticity waves in the Sun, was published in the journal Nature Astronomy and undertaken by researchers from NYU Abu Dhabi’s (NYUAD) Center for Space Science analyzed 25 years of space and ground-based data to detect these waves.
What is a coronal mass ejection?
A coronal mass ejection is a powerful eruption near the surface of the Sun, driven by the solar magnetic field, Earthsky.org reports. A CME is compared to the Sun belching and emitting the power of 20 million nuclear bombs. Following a CME, enormous bubbles of superheated gas called plasma are ejected from the Sun. Afterward, over several hours, a billion tons of material is released from the Sun’s surface, blasted out at speeds of over a million miles per hour. This can happen several times daily when the Sun is most active. The resulting shocks ripple through the solar system, where they can interrupt the function of satellites and power grids on Earth.
