Scientists said that the first “space storm” was seen circling over the Earth.
The 600-mile-wide mass of plasma was several hundred miles above the North Pole, According to a study in the journal Nature Communications.
“Until now, it was uncertain whether a space plasma storm even existed, so with such striking observations it is unbelievable to prove it,” said Mike Lockwood, a space scientist at the University of Reading and co-author of the study in Statement.
The spectacle was captured by satellites in August 2014, but recently opened during research led by scientists from Shandong University in China.
Researchers said that instead of water in space there were storms of “rain” electrons, several spiral arms and lasted for eight hours.
“Tropical storms are associated with enormous amounts of energy, and these space storms must be created by unusually large and rapid transfer of solar wind energy and charged particles into the Earth’s upper atmosphere,” Lockwood said.
Lockome said that the discovery of “space storms” during periods of low geometric activity suggests that they may be a common occurrence.
“Plasma and magnetic fields in planetary environments exist throughout the universe, so the findings suggest that space storms should be a widespread phenomenon,” he said.
Leave a Reply