Dazzling discovery: Scientists spot aurora-like emission in Sun's atmosphere

The scientists, in a spectacular discovery, have spotted the presence of aurora-like emission in the atmosphere of the Sun.

A team of astronomers, headed by Sijie Yu of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, recorded a never-before-seen kind of long-lasting radio emission at an altitude of some 40,000 kilometres (25,000 miles) above the sunspot.

The team stated that the Sun is known to emit all types of radiation, however, nothing resembles an aurora.

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"We've detected a peculiar type of long-lasting polarised radio bursts emanating from a sunspot, persisting for over a week," stated Yu, Science Alert reported.

"This is quite unlike the typical, transient solar radio bursts typically lasting minutes or hours. It's an exciting discovery that has the potential to alter our comprehension of stellar magnetic processes," he added.

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The glowing aurorae are among the most spectacular sights spotted from Earth, however, they are not unique to our home planet and have been detected on many planets in the Solar System, and also the four Galilean moons of Jupiter.

Scientists suggest ECM emission led to aurora

The auroras get formed when solar particles get caught up in magnetic field lines which increases the energy of the particles before they get deposited, usually in an atmosphere where they interact with molecules and atoms and produce a glow.

The aurora includes radio components also and the visible light is only part of its emission spectrum. Although, a lot of radio emission is emitted by the Sun through other processes which include bursts of radioactivity, the emission spotted over the sunspot was similar to radio aurorae.

Yu stated that spatially and temporally resolved analysis of the team "suggests that [the emissions] are due to the electron-cyclotron maser (ECM) emission, involving energetic electrons trapped within converging magnetic field geometries."

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"The cooler and intensely magnetic areas of sunspots provide a favourable environment for the ECM emission to occur," she stated, adding, "Drawing parallels with the magnetic polar caps of planets and other stars and potentially providing a local solar analogue to study these phenomena."

The team has been planning to go through archival data to see if they can discover evidence of the aurora in bursts of solar activity.

"We're beginning to piece together the puzzle of how energetic particles and magnetic fields interact in a system with the presence of long-lasting starspots," stated solar physicist Surajit Mondal of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, adding, "Not just on our own Sun but also on stars far beyond our solar system."

(With inputs from agencies)