Image Credit: Athenian News Agency
This article is translated from the original article which appears in Greek.
Its scale is something the mind cannot grasp through classic school textbooks. As a nearly perfect sphere with a diameter of 1.4 million kilometers, our Sun is so large that over a million Earth-sized planets could fit inside it. Yes, you read that right, a million planets just like ours. And yet, beyond the question of the size of the star in our solar system, what stands out about the Sun's effect on our cosmic reality is what we don't see with...the naked eye. They are actions of the Sun that can determine today, as well as the tomorrow of Humanity in its technological age. And it is exactly these phenomena that the Sun causes and "hide" in the invisible wavelengths, the phenomena that in recent years dozens of specialized scientists around the world are analyzing, mining unique data for the so-called "The conditions and activity observed in interplanetary space caused by the Sun’s activity, such as solar flares, solar storms, and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Severe space weather conditions directed towards Earth can impact infrastructure and technology on Earth, as well as satellites, spacecraft, and astronauts in its trajectory.". Data that will determine to a large extent even how the next steps of human space exploration will be done through manned missions...
"We as beings see light from the Sun at certain wavelengths, those that the human eye can see. There are other wavelengths that the human eye cannot see and we use special instruments to see. In a similar way we measure particles that leave the Sun. The A stream of charged particles, mostly protons and electrons, that escapes into the Sun's outer atmosphere at high speeds and streams out into the solar system in all directions. is essentially a collection of charged particles where atoms have dissolved and the electrons negatively charged particles have separated from the ions, the positively charged particles, what we call Plasma consists of a gas heated to sufficiently high temperatures that the atoms ionize. The properties of the gas are controlled by electromagnetic forces among constituent ions and electrons, which results in different behavior than gas made primarily of neutral atoms like the Earth’s atmosphere. Plasma is often considered the fourth state of matter (besides solid, liquid, and gas). Most of the matter in the Universe is in the plasma state.. Plasma is the fourth state of matter, very common and abundant in the The totality of all space and time; all that is, has been, and will be. - although most of what is observable is plasma. And it is this very plasma - or otherwise A gas that has electrically charged particles (free electrons and/or ions). Also known as a plasma. - that flows from the Sun in all directions. With special instruments that we launch into Space, with spacecraft, we can see and measure the various particles as they leave the Sun", explains the professor of Princeton, USA, speaking to the radio station of APE BEE, "Agency 104.9FM" David J. McComas. Professor McComas, Head of Space Physics at the Princeton Group of Princeton University, Vice President of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, a leading scientific figure in the field of the study of the The bubble-like region surrounding the solar system inflated by the solar wind, shielding the solar system from interstellar radiation., described the amazing and extremely important developments of the last decades in the field as they are already planned new manned return missions to the Moon.
We Must Be Ready for the Times When the Sun Will Be in a... Bad Solar "Mood"
This expert in charge of Space Physics at the Princeton Group clearly explains that the question of Space Weather is important especially today when humanity is living a biotechnologically advanced.
"We've had spacecraft and spacecraft around Earth to study these for a little while now. Much larger solar flares have occurred hundreds of years before we started taking measurements and some of these events would have a terrifying and particularly powerful effect on our hi tech society. So I appreciate that extreme space weather events are something we don't know enough about yet. I appreciate that they may happen within my own lifetime or possibly my children's lifetime, but I do believe that the day will come when a very large scale space weather event will have a very significant effect on our highly technology-based society. This will erase some telecommunications perhaps - information such as GPS positioning or something like that. It doesn't mean that, for example, the international interbank system will be disabled for such a long A measure of the flow of events. that there will be significant complications for transactions for a long time, but there are some things that the Sun can do and do naturally and, in in some rare cases, this could have a significant impact on our societies," explains the American professor.
Beyond space weather and its effect on Earth and what we have in The curved path, usually elliptical, described by a planet, satellite, spaceship, etc., around a celestial body, such as the Sun; also called orbital path., knowing what the Sun causes is even more important for astronauts in space because there is less protection there. "It also leaves (s.s. an astronaut when he will be on a trip to the planet 'Mars') and from the Earth's The region around a planetary body dominated by the planet’s magnetic interference., the Earth's Magnetism is one of the basic forces of the universe. A magnetic field is a region of magnetism, which is caused by either moving electric charges or magnetic materials. that helps to protect us from charged particles. We then enter The area of space found surrounding and between planets of a star system. now, on the way to the Moon, on the way to Mars, while we have the effect of explosive events of the Sun, particle events, solar flares, large A measure of an object's resistance to change in its motion (inertial mass); a measure of the strength of gravitational force an object can produce (gravitational mass). ejections of the Sun's The outermost region of the Sun's atmosphere, consisting of thin, ionized gases at a temperature of about 1,000,000 K. It is visible to the naked eye during a solar eclipse., and events that create large energetic particle Facts. Things that can be bad for astronauts. "Being able to measure these events and hopefully predict them so that people can then enter a protected environment inside the spacecraft they're in when necessary, that's something important," he said.
The projects he has been involved in throughout the years are many, but for the heliosphere, which is his main expertise, Professor McComas still feels excited when he talks. It's the... bubble we exist in, after all! "I study the heliosphere which is essentially the area of influence of our Sun in our A huge collection of millions to trillions of stars and their planetary systems held together by gravity, and the gas, plasma, and dust that are also gravitationally held to the galaxy. The galaxy our solar system is found in is called the Milky Way.. Basically the Sun has a wind coming from it, from and to all directions and blowing at speeds of 100 to 300 million kilometers per hour and above all forming a cosmic bubble within the interstellar matter, a "bubble" which it bounds our solar system within the interstellar matter, and essentially provides protection for all of us within the solar system. Protection from galactic cosmic Usually refers to electromagnetic waves, such as light, radio, infrared, X-rays, ultraviolet; also sometimes used to refer to atomic particles of high energy, such as electrons (beta-radiation), helium nuclei (alpha-radiation), and so on. and everything else from outside (ie from this cosmic bubble),” he describes. “It's in the far outer heliosphere where we have the point where much danger comes from. This is because we have galactic cosmic radiation which provides a continuous and high level source (s.s radiation) that is not good for humans. Yes, there is that 90% protection from the outer heliosphere boundary. If this protection were half of what it is now, however, it would be virtually impossible for humans to travel to the planet Mars. So understanding this interaction and exactly how this interaction removes 90% of these galactic Charged atomic particles moving in space with very high energies and velocities close to the speed of light; most originate beyond the solar system, but some of relatively low energy area produced in solar flares (called Solar Energetic Particles), and some intermediate energy, called anomalous cosmic rays, are produced at the edge of our solar system. is very important to understanding how human exploration beyond our own Earth is possible," explains distinguished American scientist.
Listen to the whole interview on Mixcloud or read the full article on the Athenian News Agency website.