The discovery has left scientists puzzled, but they say it will help them understand our solar system’s most powerful explosions.
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The signal is repeating every 10 to 20 seconds in the Sun’s atmosphere, a team of international scientists say in a recent report.
It’s coming from a C-class solar flare which is erupting more than 5,000kilometres above the surface of the star.
Solar flares are the most powerful expulsions of energy in our solar system.
And the one in question dwarfs the size of Earth.
“The discovery is unexpected,” says Sijie Yu, an astronomer and the study’s lead author.
“This beating pattern is important for understanding how energy is released and is dissipated in the Sun’s atmosphere during these incredibly powerful explosions on the Sun.
“However, the origin of these repetitive patterns, also called quasi-periodic pulsations, has long been a mystery and a source of debate among solar physicists.”
Using the Expanded Owens Valley Solar Array (EOVSA) – a US facility which tracks microwave radio frequencies – scientists were able to track down the exact location of the first pulse.
The first signal is coming from the base of a electric current sheet over 25,000kilometres through the eruption’s so-called “core flaring region”, where it is strongest.
This is where opposing magnetic field lines approach each other, break and then reconnect, generating intense power to fuel the solar flare.
But in finding the location of the first pulse, scientists stumbles across another mystery.
“The repeating patterns are not uncommon for solar radio bursts,” Kou adds.
“But interestingly, there is a secondary source we did not expect located along the stretched current sheet that pulses in a similar fashion.”
It’s the first time something like this has been detected, says Kou.
And the investigation into both “heartbeat-like” pulses continues.
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