Among the big threats to our civilization such as nuclear war or disease outbreak is one possible catastrophe fewer people have heard of: a solar storm. Solar storms are giant ejections of solar plasma that could potentially fry electronics both in space and on the ground. A large enough solar storm could disable the entire electrical grid, destroy our communications satellites, and cripple the planet.
This is why it's so crucial we be able to predict when these solar storms occur. But the sun is a complicated thing, and it's currently impossible to predict solar storms before they happen. Scientists are still struggling to understand the reasons why solar storms occur. One team of scientists believes they have finally cracked the puzzle. Scientists from Durham University in the UK and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center have developed a computer simulation that shows solar storms are caused by a phenomenon called magnetic reconnection.
Magnetic reconnection is a process where magnetic fields can spontaneously shift and realign, releasing tremendous amounts of energy. Previous observations have indicated that magnetic reconnection could be responsible for larger solar storms, and this computer simulation provides a confirmation to that idea.
More importantly, the simulation suggests magnetic reconnection is also responsible for the smaller solar storms, something that astronomers hadn't suspected. If the simulations are supported by future observations, this discovery could be key in understanding and predicting solar storms.
Understanding solar storms is only one part of the equation, however. We'd also need the ability to see and predict the sun's magnetic fields, which is still difficult. Scientists will have to wait for upcoming solar missions like NASA's Solar Probe Plus, which is scheduled to launch next year.
Source: Durham University