Huge spots resembling lava lamps sighted during 40-year-old sun observations

Scientists have found lava-lamp-shaped drops up to 500 times larger than Earth in the solar wind, according to data from a pair of spacecraft launched in the 1970s .

We know a lot about the matter projected into space by the Sun – this is why scientists have sent the new Parker solar probe to observe the star up close. This new research offers insight into the kinds of things Parker could see, providing a "more comprehensive study of solar wind formation," according to the paper published in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

Today, scientists divide the solar wind that strikes the Earth into two components, a "fast" and a "slow", although they are more distinguished by the type of matter they contain. The fast solar wind seems to be composed of elements similar to the outer layers of the Sun and seems to come from coronal holes, colder zones in the plasma surrounding the Sun. But slower solar winds can differ in their density and the types of elements they contain.

Scientists have attempted to associate slow flow with various sources around the Sun. It's difficult, though. Scientists have measured regions of higher density plasma here on Earth believed to be from the Sun. Drops, if you want. But they did not have many opportunities to take data in the area of ​​space closer to the Sun.

The team of researchers behind the last article has been able to add evidence to this region through a pair of spacecraft that have not sent data to the Earth since the 1980s: Helios 1 and 2. They have found similar blobs of higher density in the intervening space that seems to correspond to those striking the magnetosphere of the Earth and which seems to emerge from the Sun about every hour and a half.

NASA and the German Institute for Test and Research on Aviation and Spaceflight (now called German Aerospace Center or DLR) launched the Helios probes in 1974 and 1976 to understand the particles emitted by the Sun. According to a NASA press release, much of the work done around the last article was to identify and clean up the data of several decades, even going as far as reading the German instruction manual to understand the instruments, in order to understand the instruments. The hard work paid off, revealing chains of these spots and potentially locating locations on the sun where they could have emerged.

This is an exciting discovery, but one that raises many questions about the nature of the spots. Fortunately, last year NASA launched the Solar Probe record probe, hoping to "touch" the wreath and solve some mysteries about solar wind operation.