NASA's Solar Probe Uncovers Origin of Violent Solar Winds

NASA's Solar Probe , Uncovers Origin of Violent , Solar Winds.

Gizmodo reports that NASA's Parker Solar Probe has had several close encounters with the Sun, offering scientists a closer look at what drives solar winds.

The team's findings were published on June 6 in the journal 'Nature.'.

The car-sized spacecraft was designed to reach a distance of about 4 million miles from the surface of the Sun.

That's closer than any other spacecraft has ever gone before.

Gizmodo reports that a recent interaction with the sun saw the probe fly through jets of highly-energetic material, which allowed scientists to trace the origins of solar wind.

As Parker got closer to the Sun, they started seeing a lot more structure in the wind, James Drake, Co-author and Professor at the University of Maryland, via 'Gizmodo'.

You’d see high velocity wind with lots and lots of bursts and then it would sort of die down a little bit, and then you’d see it getting stronger again with many more bursts, James Drake, Co-author and Professor at the University of Maryland, via 'Gizmodo'.

According to a new study, the solar wind is produced by the process of magnetic reconnection occurring on the Sun's surface.

This process involves oppositely directed magnetic fields passing by one another, breaking apart and then reconnecting.

The process throws charged particles out from the surface of the Sun.

If you have two magnetic fields pointing in opposite direction, they annihilate each other...and that releases magnetic energy which produces energetic particles, James Drake, Co-author and Professor at the University of Maryland, via 'Gizmodo'