When you picture a celestial world surrounded by rings, Saturn is probably the first thing that pops into your head. But scientists have long suspected that the Sun might contain rings of dust hidden in its atmosphere, along with other mind-boggling phenomena such as plasma “blobs” and “magnetic islands.”
These weird solar features are described in one of four new papers published in Nature on Wednesday, based on dispatches from a record-breaking NASA spacecraft called the Parker Solar Probe.
During two recent encounters in October 2018 and April 2019, Parker traveled closer to the Sun than any other mission. The results from its daring dives have provided an entirely new view of our star.
“We’re really getting into the atmosphere of the Sun and we’re unfolding the global magnetic field of the Sun, which we have not seen in detail,” said Angelos Vourlidas, a co-author of the new study and an astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University, in a call.
Source: NASA’s Solar Probe Found ‘Tantalizing Evidence’ of Rings Around the Sun
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