Unlocking the Sun’s secrets

In their quest to unlock the secrets of the Sun, scientists from Sheffield and Belfast have observed sausage waves in gigantic magnetic holes

Large, dark regions on the surface of the Sun – often called sunspots – are areas where the magnetic field breaks through the interior and rises to the very hot surface. Using the UK-built solar imager ROSA – Rapid Oscillations of the Solar Atmosphere – at the Dunn Solar telescope in America, scientists were able to observe sausage waves at the solar surface.

“This is a fascinating new discovery in line with a number of discoveries made in recent years by the team. It is the first time that sausage waves have been detected in the Sun with such detail,” said Professor Robertus von Fay-Siebenburgen, head of the Solar Physics and Space Plasma Research Centre (SP2RC) at the University of Sheffield.

“Analysing these waves may bring us closer to understanding the physical mechanisms in the atmosphere of a star.”

The team – which included researchers from Queen’s University Belfast – studied a magnetic region of the Sun much smaller than a sunspot and discovered that it was able to channel energy generated deep inside the sun along the magnetic field to the Sun’s upper atmosphere.

The magnetic hole was also seen to increase and decrease in size periodically, which is a characteristic features of the sausage wave.

Researchers hope that these giant magnetic holes will help them unlock the secrets of the Sun – namely why the solar corona is heated to temperatures often a thousand times hotter than the solar surface.