Scientists to Explore the Sun  

An STFC funded project to help us learn more about our Sun and the ‘space weather’ that it generates, is to be undertaken by researchers at the Universities of Dundee and Durham who will look at basic physical processes that occur in plasmas both on the Sun and throughout the Universe.

Magnetic loops in the solar corona, solar flares and coronal mass ejections are just some of the phenomena that we don’t completely understand. STFC’s funding, which totals more than £800,000, will enable researchers to find out why these magnetic loops are so much hotter than the Sun’s surface.

This is the main focus of the research, but Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are also being studied. CMEs are explosive events in which billions of tonnes of solar plasma are thrown into space. When these CMEs collide with the Earth’s magnetic field they cause the Northern and Southern lights. However, this ‘space weather’, though beautiful to observe, also causes problems for spacecraft, satellites and high-flying airplanes as well as power blackouts.

Professor Gunnar Hornig, from the University of Dundee, says that “understanding how the Sun works, and the structures we see on it, will broaden our knowledge of the whole solar system, including our planet. It may help to resolve some of the challenges that scientists have battled with for decades, or even centuries, and prove to have practical benefits for everyday life.”

Further details can be found on www.dundee.ac.uk