(FreedomBeacon.com)- A mystery signal, similar to a heartbeat, has been identified by scientists every 10 to 20 seconds coming from the sun. A C-class solar flare 3,106 miles above the star’s surface was identified as the source of the strange pattern.
These pulses, which solar physicists call quasi-periodic pulsations (QPP), have been puzzling and contentious for a long time.
Scientists may be able to learn more about the release of potentially catastrophic solar storms if the team, led by the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), is successful in tracing the origin of the heartbeat, the solar flare.
During solar flares, coronal mass ejections (CMEs) shoot out into space, accompanied by streams of superheated plasma that emit electromagnetic radiation through radio waves, microwaves, ultraviolet rays, and X-rays. These streams of radiation are known as solar radio bursts.
Magnetic field lines on the sun may become tangled up and snap back into place, causing a solar flare. This process sends loops of ionized gas (plasma) and radiation into space at very high temperatures.
The charged particles in the fast-moving plasma form a current that flows vertically through the middle of the plasma loop. Disruptions to these “current sheets” are considered to be the cause of the “beats” in QPP signals. However, the source of these disturbances has remained a mystery.
Quasi-periodic pulsations are recurring patterns that may be seen in solar radio bursts and specific stellar radio bursts from distant stars (QPPs). These patterns are analogous to an electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG), a recording of the electrical impulses produced by the heart, in that there are momentary interruptions in the stream of radiation that result in troughs and peaks when examined on a graph.
The study’s results provide new insight into a key feature underpinning the reconnection process that causes these catastrophic outbursts.
As a result of the findings of this research, previously documented QPP occurrences and their effects on solar flares need to be reevaluated.
