14 DAY TRIAL // In a recent discovery that may explain why the Sun has so few sunspots so close to its solar maximum, experts have demonstrated that the top layers of the gigantic, plasma conveyor belt at work inside the celestial object is moving at record-setting speeds. While researchers are still not yet sure as to what implications this phenomenon has on the solar system, and on the star itself, they say that its existence may account for the decreased level of solar activity we have been experiencing for the past two years or so, Space reports.
“I believe this could explain the unusually deep solar minimum we've been experiencing. The high speed of the conveyor belt challenges existing models of the solar cycle and it has forced us back to the drawing board for new ideas,” NASA solar physicist David Hathaway says of the discovery. The expert is also one of the coauthors of a new scientific study accompanying the findings, which appears in the March 12 issue of the top-rated publication Science. The researchers base their conclusions on highly detailed datasets that were collected by the NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO).
The movement of plasma on the Sun can be likened to our oceanic conveyor belts back home. They are pathways circulated by currents, which force the body of the oceans (on Earth), and of terribly hot plasma (on the Sun) to circulate over the face of the respective body. In the case of the star, the Great Conveyor Belt is extremely massive, and it takes roughly 40 years to complete a single cycle. It is divided into two distinct branches, North and South, and many investigators believe that these two major currents may be influencing the sunspot activity. However, a clear idea as to how this happens has yet to be devised, they admit.
When the top layers of the Great Conveyor Belt skim the surface of the star, they produce a host of interactions and events, including magnetic elements (knots of solar magnetism). These features are then carried to the poles, and SOHO has instruments sensitive enough to allow for astronomers to peer at the process. “It's a little like measuring the speed of a river on Earth by clocking the leaves and twigs floating downstream,” Hathaway says. University of Memphis student Lisa Rightmire, who worked with the expert last year, was able to determine that the belt moved at a massive speed, of between 20 and 30 miles.
While his may seem slow by human standards, it is incredibly fast for one of the largest things in the solar system. “Sunspots are supposedly rooted to the bottom of the belt. So the motion of sunspots tells us how fast the belt is moving down there.” “While the top of the conveyor belt has been moving at [a] record-high speed, the bottom seems to be moving at [a] record-low speed. Another contradiction,” Hathaway concludes.