NASA's Solar Probe , Uncovers Origin of Violent , Solar Winds.<br />Gizmodo reports that NASA's Parker Solar Probe has <br />had several close encounters with the Sun, offering <br />scientists a closer look at what drives solar winds.<br />The team's findings were published <br />on June 6 in the journal 'Nature.'.<br />The car-sized spacecraft was designed <br />to reach a distance of about 4 million <br />miles from the surface of the Sun.<br />That's closer than any other <br />spacecraft has ever gone before.<br />Gizmodo reports that a recent interaction with the sun saw <br />the probe fly through jets of highly-energetic material, <br />which allowed scientists to trace the origins of solar wind.<br />As Parker got closer <br />to the Sun, they started seeing <br />a lot more structure in the wind, James Drake, Co-author and Professor at <br />the University of Maryland, via 'Gizmodo'.<br />You’d see high velocity wind with <br />lots and lots of bursts and then it <br />would sort of die down a little bit, <br />and then you’d see it getting stronger <br />again with many more bursts, James Drake, Co-author and Professor at <br />the University of Maryland, via 'Gizmodo'.<br />According to a new study, the solar wind <br />is produced by the process of magnetic <br />reconnection occurring on the Sun's surface.<br />This process involves oppositely directed <br />magnetic fields passing by one another, <br />breaking apart and then reconnecting.<br />The process throws charged particles <br />out from the surface of the Sun.<br />If you have two magnetic fields <br />pointing in opposite direction,<br />they annihilate each other...and that <br />releases magnetic energy which <br />produces energetic particles, James Drake, Co-author and Professor at <br />the University of Maryland, via 'Gizmodo'
