Solar Wind

Definition

The solar wind is a stream of charged particles ejected from the upper atmosphere of the Sun (or star general). This wind consists mainly of protons with energies of electrons and usually between 10 and 100keV. The flow of particles varies in temperature and velocity over time. These particles can escape the gravity of the Sun due to its high kinetic energy and the high temperature of the corona.

The solar wind creates the heliosphere, a huge bubble in the interstellar medium surrounding the solar system. Other phenomena are the geomagnetic storms that can destroy power grids on Earth, auroras (northern lights and southern), and the plasma tails of comets always point away from the sun.

History

The existence of a continuous stream of particles flowing outward from the Sun was suggested by British amateur astronomer Richard C. Carrington. In 1859 Carrington and Richard Hodgson independently observed for the first time what later became known as a solar flare. A solar flare is a sudden burst of energy from the solar atmosphere. The next day there was a geomagnetic storm and Carrington suspected that here was a connection between them (the solar flare and electromagnetic storm). George Fitzgerald suggested later that the matter being ejected rapidly from the sun reaches the Earth several days later.

In 1990 he launched the Ulysses probe to study the solar wind from high solar latitudes. All previous observations were made in or near the ecliptic plane of the solar system.

Composition

The elemental composition of solar wind in the solar system is identical to that of the solar corona: 73% hydrogen and 25% helium, with trace amounts of impurities.

Effect

The solar wind forms a "bubble" in the interstellar mediu

Vocabulary

1. Geomagnetic storms: occur when the plasma pressure contained within the magnetosphere is large enough to inflate and thereby distort the electromagnetic field, affecting radio communications.

2. The aurora: is a phenomenon in the form of brightness or luminance that appears in the night sky.

3. Plasma: Estate of matter.

4. The heliosphere is the name given to the spatial region which is under the influence of solar wind and magnetic field, which is composed of ions of the solar atmosphere and extends beyond the orbit of Pluto.

5. keV (electron) energy unit.

6. The solar system is a planetary system.

7. The solar corona is the outermost layer of the Sun

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