NASA-Funded Study May Have Finally Solved ‘A Mystery at the Sun’s Poles’ | Space

New research funded by NASA and the National Science Foundation exploring the role of polar vortices may have finally solved an intriguing mystery occurring at the sun’s poles.

According to the authors of a new study outlining the potentially groundbreaking research, scientists have often assumed that the sun likely forms polar vortices above its north and south poles, much like those observed in the atmospheres of Earth and other planets. However, if they exist, these vortices are influenced by the magnetism in the sun’s plasma, making their formation and effects on solar storms a mystery.

Due to the Coriolis force, vortices develop in fluids surrounding a spinning body. For example, vortices have been spotted above the poles of Earth, Mars, Venus, Uranus, Neptune, and even Saturn’s moon Titan, which has a dense atmosphere.

Now, researchers from the U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR) have simulated the formation of polar vortices above the sun’s poles. If their findings are correct, they could help solve the mystery at the sun’s poles while offering insights into the Sun’s magnetism and the solar cycle and improving our ability to predict space weather.

“No one can say for certain what is happening at the solar poles,” said NSF NCAR senior scientist Mausumi Dikpati, who led the…