Something strange is happening on the Sun. On February 2, NASA discovered that a huge plasma filament it had lifted off the star’s surface and was circling its north pole. It is a phenomenon of unprecedented proportions (although previously observed), without explanation and that is repeated every 11 years.
That is the period, according to space meteorologists, it takes to complete a solar cycle, characterized by the ebb and flow in the generation of eruptions and sunspots. Knowing this, the main hypothesis points in that direction, although their exact relationship is not well known.
“Once in every solar cycle, this ‘plasma hedge’ forms at 55 degree latitude and begins to march towards the solar poles. It is something very curious. But a big question hangs over him. Why does it only move toward the pole once, disappear, and then magically return three or four years later in exactly the same region?” the solar physicist wonders. Scott McIntoshdeputy director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, USA.
Scientists know that the Sun’s polar regions are key to the magnetic field generation of the star, which drives that cycle of activity every 11 years. But they had never seen a landslide of this caliber, with the subsequent polar whirlwind originated.