Material from a part of the Sun’s surface – near its northern prominence – broke off last week, puzzling scientists across the world. Los Angeles based space weather physicist — Dr Tamitha Skov who runs her website ‘Space Weather Woman’ — said the piece that broke off is now circulating in a massive polar vortex around the north pole of the Sun.
“Talk about the 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!” she said.
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A polar vortex is usually is defined as a large area of low pressure and cold air surrounding both of the Earth’s poles, while ‘vortex’ refers to the counterclockwise flow of air that helps keep the colder air near the Poles. A prominence is a large, bright feature that extends outward from the Sun’s surface.
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Such unusual activity occurs at the Sun’s 55th degree latitude once in every 11-year solar cycle, The New York Post reported quoting experts.
Solar physicist Scott McIntosh, deputy director at the United States’ National Center for Atmospheric Research told Space.com that not much is known, for now, about the occurrence of the event. “Once every solar cycle, it forms at the 55 degree latitude and it starts to march up to the solar poles… it is very curious. There is a big ‘why’ question… why does it only move toward the pole one time and then disappears and then comes back, magically, three or four years later in exactly the same region?” he said.
The video of the incident went viral on social media. “Sun’s really acting up with some beautiful loops and flares,” said a user, whose tweet was retweeted by McIntosh who has been sharing a lot of information surrounding the Sun and its activities since the incident.
Some users also wondered if the event would affect the climate on Earth. “Will satellites or the climate on earth be affected by our star getting a northern polar vortex? Seems quite extreme!” a user tweeted in response to Dr Skov’s video.