NASA is once again in its aggressive stance to get to know more about the universe. With it, it has tasked its STEREO-A and STEREO-B twin spacecraft to understand more about the inner workings of solar winds. These solar winds are the continuously flowing solar charged particles that flow across the sun.
The new discovery will help scientists understand the effects as well as how these solar materials work, furthering knowledge on a possible interstellar mission. NASA shows a video to the public showing the journey of the charged particles from the outer surface of the sun and how it becomes solar winds.
Nicholeen Viall, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center's solar scientist at and co-author of the study says, "Now we have a global picture of solar wind evolution. This is really going to change our understanding of how the space environment develops."
Solar winds were discovered way back in the 1950's with the help of the founding members of NASA and other scientists. However, its origins were clouded in mystery, until this day. This shows that the solar system is littered with various solar activities that we once haven't thought of before.
NASA Digs Deeper into the Sun
According to the statements of the scientists, plasma makes up the atmosphere of the sun and is a mixture of positive and negative particles that are differentiated as a result of ultra high temperatures. This, in turn, carries the particles along its magnetic field, thus becoming solar winds.
The scientists separated the solar wind's faint features against its own background noise which is more than a hundred times brighter than its own plasma. The many stars, the sun's stray light and the dust particles present in the inner solar system all contribute to the sun's own light sources.
NASA says that the new discovery and thorough analysis will inspire future space missions in discovering more about our very own solar system.
This recent discovery is also a very good sign that the Solar Probe Plus mission that will be launched in 2018 is on the right track. It will go into the sun's corona with extremely ultra high temperatures.
