14 DAY TRIAL // A paper published in the latest issue of the top journal Science presents, for the first time, evidence that structures known as jet streams do exist on the Sun. These formations were hypothesized long ago, but conclusive evidences to support their existence have not been collected up until now.
The giant jet streams are apparently long enough to cover half of the distance between the Earth and the Moon, astronomers say. The structures were detected using the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) spacecraft, which looks at the Sun in multiple wavelengths.
SDO was able to identify solar plasma jet patterns spanning more than 200,000 kilometers (about 124,300 miles) in diameter. These convection cells are much larger than any other structure detected on the Sun to date, and also move significantly slower, Nature reports.
NASA investigators believe that the new research may finally shed some more light on why the equator of the Sun appears to be moving up to 30 percent faster than the rest of the star. The flows may also play a role in the formation of sunspots, and in the development of dangerous solar storms, the research group argues.