In the viral video, a huge 'plasma filament', or electrified gas, can be seen blasting away from the sun, splitting, and then swirling around in a "massive polar vortex."
Technological developments have enabled astronomers and scientists to make numerous discoveries about the universe. A never-before-seen incident that has mystified scientists has been caught by NASA as a piece of the sun's northern pole 'breaks' off.
In the viral video, a huge 'filament' of electrified gas, can be seen blasting away from the sun, splitting, and then swirling around in a "massive polar vortex." Even though astronomers are taken aback, they believe that the emergence is related to the sun's magnetic field's periodic reversal.
Space weather expert Tamitha Skov posted the video on Twitter and credited NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory for capturing it. Tamitha wrote, "Talk about Polar Vortex! Material from a northern prominence just broke away from the main filament & is now circulating in a massive polar vortex around the north pole of our Star. Implications for understanding the Sun's atmospheric dynamics above 55° here cannot be overstated!"
Scientists are more concerned about the most recent innovation because the Sun continues to emit solar flares (also known as prominences) that can occasionally interfere with communications on Earth.
What is solar filament?
Solar filaments, according to NASA, are magnetically bound clouds of energetic particles that hover above the sun. These appear as hanging, extended strands from the surface of the sun.
How often does the sun's surface break off?
Every 11 years, a prominence similar to the one shared by Skov can be seen precisely at latitude 55. Scott McIntosh, a solar physicist and the deputy director of Boulder, Colorado's National Center for Atmospheric Research, spoke to Space.com, "Once every solar cycle, it forms at the 55-degree latitude and it starts to march up to the solar poles. It's very curious. There is a big 'why' question around it. Why does it only move toward the pole one time and then disappears and then comes back, magically, three or four years later in exactly the same region?"
While filaments separating from the sun have been seen before, this is the first instance of one whirling through the region. Scientists are still trying to figure out why the filament in the recent observation whirled around the sun rather than shooting off into space.
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