A new study published in The Astrophysical Journal tells us that the Sun may be tossing explosive plasma spirals called flux ropes at us. If that’s the case, we wouldn’t even see them coming.
They’re kind of like the coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, that you might already be familiar with. However, they’re smaller, stealthier spirals of magnetic energy that can still cause geomagnetic storms big enough to mess with satellites, GPS systems, and the power grid.
These flux ropes caused enough of a problem on their own. That problem is compounded by the fact that we don’t have the technology in place to monitor this level of solar activity properly.
In a statement released on the University of Michigan’s website, lead researcher Chip Manchester said, “Imagine if you could only monitor a hurricane remotely with the measurements from one wind gauge.”
We send out one spacecraft at a time, tasked with trying to cover the whole surface of the Sun. It’s not enough.
What Exactly is Going on With the Sun Right Now?
Manchester’s team ran simulations showing that these flux ropes can sometimes morph into magnetic disruptors capable of launching southward-oriented magnetic fields at just the right orientation. This messes with Earth’s magnetosphere without triggering the typical warning signs we monitor today.
Manchester and his team have come up with a solution: a squadron of satellites called SWIFT, which stands for Space Weather Investigation Frontier. It’s a four-satellite array that would orbit the Sun in a 3D pyramid pattern.
Each craft would be spaced about 200,000 miles apart. The idea is to catch solar activity from multiple angles, which researchers say would boost our warning capabilities by up to 40 percent.
That warning could’ve helped back in May 2024, when Earth’s last major geomagnetic storm fried parts of the electric grid, threw satellite comms out of whack, and confused spacecraft on Earth and on Mars. The Sun is currently in solar maximum, its most temperamental phase in an 11-year cycle, which means there’s plenty of potentially disruptive activity that we can monitor, and we really should be.
The sun is hurling flaming pillars of disruption at us like an MLB pitcher who only knows how to throw blurry fastballs. And all we’ve got to observe it with are a pair of deteriorating eyeballs.
Maybe it’s time to take our solar observations a little more seriously.
The post Scientists Are Having a Hard Time Observing the Sun Right Now appeared first on VICE.
