NASA has released a 3D model that intricately illustrates certain aspects of the Sun's behavior. Creating a model that encompasses the entire behavior of our star is quite challenging, so scientists have presented only a small segment of the internal structure of our star, reports Space.
Researchers are striving to understand the complex behavior of the Sun, and it is crucial to decode the patterns that govern the activity of our star. These patterns can have a profound impact on Earth.
For instance, weather on Earth and ocean currents are directly linked to the Sun's behavior. Additionally, it influences space weather through radiation and plasma ejections composed of charged particles, which can damage satellites in orbit and negatively affect the health of astronauts. To identify the patterns of solar activity, scientists from NASA emphasize the need to decode the intricacies of our star itself.
NASA has released a 3D model that intricately illustrates certain aspects of the Sun's behavior. The simulation showcases turbulent flows of material that move upward from the Sun's inner layers to its atmosphere, twisting and changing in the process.
The simulation employs a color scale where the fastest movements through the Sun's layers are depicted in bright red, transitioning to yellow, green, and blue as the motion slows down.
According to scientists, there are currently no computational capabilities to create realistic global models of the entire Sun. Therefore, a model of a small portion of our star has been created, showing the structure of the Sun's surface and atmosphere. The model depicts phenomena such as shock waves or tornado-like structures measuring just a few kilometers across. However, no spacecraft can observe such details.
To develop the model of the Sun's behavior, researchers utilized the Pleiades supercomputer located at NASA's Ames Research Center. The modeling was completed in a matter of weeks and required terabytes of data.
Scientists stated that the model incorporated data on what is known about solar plasma to replicate various phenomena observed by the Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft. This observatory has been monitoring the Sun since 2010 and is one of many spacecraft that NASA employs to observe the behavior of our star.