At https://spaceweather.com – over the last week or two of early June 2023 we have had solar bubbles puffing up the face of the Sun. Now we have a geomagnetic storm sparked by a CIR – lighting up the earth like a Christmas tree. The The aurora kept pulsing, and each time it subsided it quickly sprang back into life. What are CIRs? They form in the interstices between streams of solar wind – especially when a fast stream flows tthrough slower moving streams. Solar wind plasma piles up – producting structures that mimic CMEs. Some lovely photographs are available to adorn your computer screen.
At https://phys.org/news/2023-06-brightest-gamma-ray-ordinary-supernova.html … we are told this was the brightest of all time – at least over the last couple of decades or so. The brightest of all gamma ray bursts – with an origin in a run of the mill supernova. It was so powerful it sent shock waves through earth’s ionosphere. If the supernova had been somewhat closer to our solar system the burst of gamma rays may have led to serious problems on the surface of the earth. Supernova are thought to represent the death of massive stars – anywhere in the universe. It contracts and collapses to form a neutron star – or a black hole. Theory of course. What if black holes did not exist?
In the process the explosion becomes a swirling disk of gases. Powerful magnetic fields sweep the gases up and beam it away – in two fierce jets. The charged particles spiral around the magnetic fields internal to the jets – moving at the speed of light. Asthe charged particles spin around they induce gamma rays. No wonder scientists are so intrigued. However, the supernova in question tuned out to be surprisingly under whelming. It is no more energetic or brighter than others. The mainstream explanation at the moment, and probably forever, is that the supernova was directly facing our solar system, and therefore the earth. However, it may also mean they have a theory that is lacking. The magnetism is there, and the charged particles – but where is the electricity.
A more intriguing story is at https://phys.org/news/2023-06-sun-coldest-region-secret-million-degree.html … how are temperatures in the Sun’s corona, or upper atmosphere, hundreds of times hotter than at the Sun’s surace? A stdy in Nature Astronomy – see https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-023-01973-3 … concerns an intense wave of energy from what is regarded as a cool but dark and strongly magnetised plasma region on the Sun. This dark region is called the sunspot umbra. It is capable of traversing the solar atmosphere and maintaining temperatures of a milion degrees Kelvin in the sun’s corona. The team measured activity detected at active sun spot zones.