Drops 500 times the size of the Earth are projected from the sun

The Parker solar probe is currently on the road to the sun, to better understand the almost perfect hot plasma sphere that powers our solar system. Back on Earth, scientists looked at decades old data and found something interesting: blobs. Literal blobs.

Not just regular blobs. Big blobs. Officially called "periodic density structures", these spots in the solar wind emit blazing sun and can reach 50 to 500 times the size of the Earth. Apparently, these things emerge from the sun every 90 minutes or so.

"They look like drops from a lava lamp," said Nicholeen Viall, an astrophysics researcher at NASA / Goddard Space Center, speaking to Space.

Scientists are aware of these lava lamp spots for decades, but it is only now that we are seeing them directly from the source. They were discovered following a reexamination of 45-year-old data from the German Helios 1 and Helios 2 NASA probes (probes sent to the sun in 1974 and 1976). With the help of these data, PhD student Simone Di Matteo has identified trends in the data consistent with suet dribbling streaks of the sun.

The results were published in JGR Space Physics.

The Earth's magnetic field protects us the most from the impact of these spots, but they can interfere with our satellites and our communication systems.

We do not know a lot about these spots, and one of the many reasons Parker's Parker solar probe was directed to the sun was to learn more about the nature of solar wind and spots like these "structures at periodic density ". The spacecraft recently completed its second close flyby of the sun and will start filtering the data back to Earth.

"This is one of those studies that has raised more questions than we have answered, but it's perfect for Parker Solar Probe," Viall said in a statement.

NASA hopes that the probe will come close enough to catch the blobs immediately after their direct formation by the sun.