By Brooke Kato; Edited by News Gate Team
Twitter / @TamithaSkov
According to specialists, unusual activity usually occurs near the sun’s 55-degree latitudes during per 11-year solar cycle, but this episode has scientists baffled.
A prominence is a noticeable feature that projects outward from the surface of the sun. Previous filament tear-aways have been seen, but not on this scale.
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According to Scott McIntosh, a solar physicist and the deputy director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, no one knows what triggers such an unusual event.
Every solar cycle, it forms at a latitude of 55 degrees and begins to move toward the solar poles, according to McIntosh. It’s quite intriguing. There is a lot of “why” surrounding it. Why does it only make one trip toward the pole, vanish, and then suddenly reappear three or four years later in the same place?
While experts admit it probably has something to do with the sun’s magnetic field, the rest remains a mystery due to humanity’s limited view of its star. Scientists can only view the sun from the “ecliptic plane,” or the geometric plane that contains the orbit of Earth.
The European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter mission — which is taking photos of the sun while raising its orbit beyond the ecliptic plane — might provide answers, but until then, researchers are left scratching their heads.
By Brooke Kato; Edited by News Gate Team
