NASA’s James Web Space Telescope recently made an unprecedented discovery that has left scientists concerned. According to the recent observation, a huge part of the Sun was reported to have broken off of its surface and is now circulating in a massive polar vortex around the north pole of the star.
Dr. Tamitha Skov, a space Weather Physicist, took to her Twitter to share the piece of information. In her tweet, she wrote, that a ‘material’ from a northern prominence broke away from the main filament and was circulating in a massive polar vortex around the north pole of the Sun.
Notably, solar prominence is a large and bright feature that extends outwards from the surface of the sun. These are anchored to the star’s surface and extend outwards in the corona-hot outer atmosphere.
Prominences are huge masses of hydrogen and helium, they may take a day to form but can last in the corona for months.
Dr. Tamitha’s tweet read, “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!”
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! pic.twitter.com/1SKhunaXvP
— Dr. Tamitha Skov (@TamithaSkov) February 2, 2023
Later, SpaceWeather.com updated on this matter and reported that a medium-sized but powerful solar flare knocked out a short-wave radio over the Pacific Ocean on February 7.
Scott McIntosh, a solar physicist and deputy director at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado said that he has never seen a vortex like this.
Although there is still a lot of confusion over the breaking of the northern prominence, scientists have said that it could be related to the reversal of the sun’s magnetic field. Reportedly, when the sun reaches a 55-degree latitude in every 11-year solar cycle, something unexpected usually happens.
Scott McIntosh told Space.com that once in 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 disappear and then come back, magically, three or four years later in exactly the same region?” said the solar physicist.