It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Saturday, August 31, 2024
Shock as BBC lorry and police car blown up close to O2 arena in London
Firefighters rushed to the scene of a film set explosion close to the O2 Arena sparking panic among locals.
London Fire Brigade were called to a yard in Dock Road, Silvertown, at 7.51pm on Saturday after a stunt went out of control.
The blaze destroyed a van and damaged a car and a lorry, LFB added.
One resident showed pictures before the explosion of a BBC truck and a police car waiting on the dock
She told The Independent: “From my understanding it was part of filming planned for tomorrow.
“I didn’t see it but heard a loud bang and went outside to see the fire.”
She added: “We were told it would happen last week, but clearly they forgot to inform the people on the side of the explosion of its postponement and fire services, because they sent so many trucks. Our buildings vibrated.”
Pictures taken before the explosion (@data_barbs)
A total of 25 firefighters tackled the blaze and it was under control by 9.02pm.
No injuries were reported.
LFB posted on X on Saturday evening saying: “The fire at an open air yard in #Silvertown is now under control.
“One van was destroyed by the fire and most of a car and lorry were damaged by the fire. There are currently no reports of any injuries.”
It added: “The fire in #Silvertown followed a controlled explosion at a film set which spread out of control. Firefighters worked quickly to extinguish the fire, which is now under control.
“Crews will remain on scene for the remainder of the evening.”
X Suspended In Brazil After Supreme Court Order, Over 22 Million Users Shut Out
Following the Supreme Court's orders, the social media platform went offline on the web and mobile apps, making it inaccessible to over 22 million users in Brazil.
Elon Musk's X officially went offline in Brazil after the Supreme Court ordered its "immediate and complete suspension". The decision of the Brazil top court came after Musk allegedly refused to name a legal representative for Brazil and missed the deadline imposed by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.
Following the Supreme Court's orders, the social media platform went offline on the web and mobile apps, making it inaccessible to over 22 million users in Brazil.
With the fifth-largest digital population, users were met with the message - "Seems like you lost connectivity. We’ll keep retrying.”
The feud between Musk and Alexandre de Moraes dates back to April 2024, after the Supreme Court judge ordered the suspension of dozens of X accounts for spreading disinformation. Moraes had ordered the suspension of accounts for spreading disinformation. These accounts belonged mainly to supporters of the former right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro.
Amid the disinformation row, X (formerly Twitter) closed down its office in Brazil after its representative was allegedly threatened with arrest for failure to comply with the orders.
Following the initial orders, X was also threatened with fines for refusing to comply with the order, resulting in a feud between Musk and Moraes.
After the order on Saturday, De Moraes added that the social media platform will remain suspended in the country until Musk and the company comply with the orders. A daily fine of 50,000 reais ($8,900) for people or companies using or VPNs to access X have also been imposed.
The order from Alexandre de Moraes has been criticised by many, including Musk, for violating free speech.
Taking to X, the former CEO of the social media platform stated - "Free speech is the bedrock of democracy and an unelected pseudo-judge in Brazil is destroying it for political purposes."
Musk went on to criticise the current Brazilian administration stating it would be "insane to invest in the country with the current administration" and the Supreme Court judge.
The Brazilian Bar Association has also moved the Supreme Court to reconsider its order and the fines imposed on citizens using VPNs to access the social media platform. The association argued that sanctions cannot be imposed without ensuring an adversarial process and a right to full defense for the citizens
WWIII
China and Philippines accuse each other of ramming ships in South China Sea A Philippine Coast Guard ship is seen surrounded by Chinese maritime militia vessels and a Chinese Coast Guard ship during a resupply mission for Filipino troops stationed at a grounded warship in the South China Sea, Oct 4, 2023.
AUGUST 31, 2024
BEIJING — The Philippines and China exchanged accusations of intentionally ramming coast guard vessels in disputed waters of the South China Sea on Saturday (Aug 31), the latest in an escalating series of clashes in the vital waterway.
The collision near the Sabina Shoal was their fifth maritime confrontation in a month in a longstanding rivalry.
Beijing claims almost the entire South China Sea, including parts claimed by the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam. Portions of the waterway, where US$3 trillion (S$4 trillion) worth of trade passes annually, are believed to be rich in oil and natural gas deposits, as well as fish stocks.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2016 found China's sweeping claims had no legal basis, a ruling Beijing rejects.
Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson Jay Tarriela showed videos of Saturday's confrontation at a press conference, saying China Coast Guard vessel 5205 "directly and intentionally rammed the Philippine vessel" without provocation.
The ramming damaged the 97-metre (320-foot) Teresa Magbanua, one of the Philippines' largest coast guard cutters, but no personnel were injured, Tarriela said.
Liu Dejun, a spokesperson for China's coast guard, said in a statement a Philippine ship, "illegally stranded" at the shoal, had lifted anchor and "deliberately rammed" a Chinese vessel. He called on the Philippines to withdraw immediately or bear the consequences.
"The Chinese coast guard will take the measures required to resolutely thwart all acts of
provocation, nuisance and infringement and resolutely safeguard the country's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests," Liu said.
Tarriela said Manila would not withdraw its ship "despite the harassment, the bullying activities and escalatory action of the Chinese coast guard".
US condemns Chinese 'violations'
The US ambassador to the Philippines expressed Washington's support for the Philippines, a treaty ally.
"US condemns the multiple dangerous violations of international law by the PRC (People's Republic of China), including today's intentional ramming," Ambassador MaryKay Carlson said on social media platform X.
The Philippines deployed a ship in April to the Sabina Shoal, 75 nautical miles from the coast of the Philippine province of Palawan. Manila accused Beijing of building an artificial island, saying it had documented piles of dead and crushed coral on the sandbars, which Beijing denies.
This week the Philippine maritime council said Chinese aircraft made unsafe manoeuvres against a civilian aircraft conducting patrols over two other disputed areas, the Scarborough Shoal and Subi reef.
The Philippines accused China of blocking a routine resupply mission on Sunday, saying Chinese vessels rammed and used water cannons on a fisheries bureau ship transporting food, fuel and medical supplies for Filipino fishermen.
Far-right AfD on track for its first win in eastern German state vote
A person waves a Saxony flag during Germany's Alternative for Germany (AfD) campaign event for the Saxony state elections in Dresden, Germany, Aug 29, 2024. PHOTO: Reuters file
August 31, 2024
BERLIN — The far-right Alternative for Germany is predicted to come first in at least one of two elections in eastern states on Sunday (Sept 1), piling pressure on Chancellor Olaf Scholz's federal coalition over the economy, immigration and support for Ukraine.
The 11-year-old AfD, which has greater support in the formerly communist-run east, will be unlikely to be able to form a state government even if it does win, as it is polling short of a majority and other parties refuse to collaborate with it.
But it will be the first time a far-right party has the most seats in a German state parliament since World War Two and its strength will complicate coalition building and could allow it to block constitutional changes and appointments of some judges.
The AfD is polling 30 per cent in Thuringia, nearly 10 points ahead of the conservatives in second place, while tying with them in Saxony on around 30 to 32 per cent. The newly-created far-left Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) is set to come third in both states.
Strong gains for the two anti-establishment parties herald growing instability in Europe's biggest economy, reflecting a fragmentation of the political landscape that could also complicate efforts to form coherent national governments.
The AfD's signature topic of migration shot up the agenda after a knife attack a week ago in the western city of Solingen in which a 26-year-old suspected Islamic State member from Syria is accused of killing three people.
"We want to end the failure of the state, the loss of control," AfD co-leader Alice Weidel told a campaign event on Wednesday in Dresden. "That can only be done through a sustainable change in migration and asylum policy."
The BSW, named after its founder, a former communist, also opposes both immigration and military backing for Ukraine's fight against the Russian invasion; both parties seek better relations with Moscow.
All three parties in Scholz's federal coalition are expected to lose votes and two may even struggle to make the five per cent threshold to enter parliament. Their sagging popularity could mean a return to a conservative-led alliance in next year's national polls.
Business leaders have warned of the threat of far-right extremism to Europe's largest economy, saying it could make it harder to attract skilled labour and investment. German politicians say populist rhetoric has fuelled physical attacks.
The AfD is led in Thuringia by Bjoern Hoecke, a man that some in the party considered so extremist they tried to expel him.
The former history teacher has called Berlin's memorial to Nazi Germany's Holocaust of Europe's Jews a "monument of shame" and was convicted earlier this year for using a Nazi slogan at a party rally.
While voting patterns in the formerly communist-run east are still distinct 30 years after reunification due to weaker party allegiances and greater economic pessimism, Sunday's elections give a flavour of nationwide and even European-wide trends.
As in France and elsewhere, the rise of anti-establishment parties in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the ensuing cost-of-living crisis are complicating coalition-building and governability.
"Everything has gone wrong with the established parties: We need a new direction," said Thomas Leser, who was in the audience at the BSW rally in Suhl in Thuringia.
Created in January, the BSW, which combines social conservatism and far-left economics, is expected to win up to 20 per cent and 15 per cent respectively in Thuringia and Saxony, which could put it in kingmaker position.
"I'm also not happy when a party becomes strong in which there really are right-wing extremists and Nazis," party leader Sahra Wagenknecht said at a rally this week. "But who is responsible for the fact that so many people in our country vote for such a party out of anger and despair?"
"It's the politicians who have been ruling over people's heads for years," she said.
Both the AfD and BSW, which together are polling between 40 to 50 per cent in Thuringia and Saxony albeit only 23 to 27.5 per cent nationwide, oppose arming Ukraine, a particularly sensitive issue in eastern Germany, arguing that Kyiv should make peace with Moscow.
"Let's take a look at the supply of weapons, you also have to look for diplomatic solutions here, no matter with whom," said Gerhard Iffert at a BSW event in Eisenach.
The party is only polling seven to nine per cent at national level but with Scholz's Social Democrats down to 15 to 16 per cent from 25.7 per cent at the 2021 elections, every vote counts.
Right-wing extremist set to win the state election in Germany’s Thuringia
By Jeremias Lin and Oliver Noyan | Euractiv Aug 27, 2024 Content-Type: Analysis The two German states of Saxony and Thuringia are heading to the polls on Sunday to vote on the new state parliament. While the far-right AfD party is expected to get substantial gains, their meteoric rise is especially visible in Thuringia, where the party is led by the far-right extremist Björn Höcke. [Photo by Hannes P Albert/picture alliance via Getty Images] Euractiv is part of the Trust Project >>>
A right-wing extremist is poised to win Sunday’s (1 September) local election in the German state of Thuringia, eying the deposition of prime minister amid growing dissatisfaction with the established parties.
The two German states of Saxony and Thuringia are heading to the polls on Sunday to vote on the new state parliament. While the far-right AfD party is expected to get substantial gains, their rise is especially visible in Thuringia, where the party is led by the far-right extremist Björn Höcke.
According to the polls, Höcke’s party is expected to win a landslide victory with around 30%—almost three times as many votes as all three of the coalition parties in Berlin combined—and around 10% ahead of the conservative CDU, which is polling in second place with 21%.
Höcke, who once said that it would be a “big problem” if Hitler was portrayed as the “absolute evil” in German political discourse, is aiming to become the party’s first-ever prime minister in one of the German states.
In both Saxony and Thuringia, the regional branches of the AfD are considered even more right-wing than the federal party. Germany’s domestic intelligence agency—the Verfassungsschutz—has categorised them as ‘definitely right-wing extremists’, while the federal AfD is so far only under suspicion of being extremist.
Höcke has already been convicted twice for using prohibited Nazi slogans. In July, the regional court in Halle found that he had employed the slogan “Everything for Germany,” originally used by Adolf Hitler’s Sturmabteilung (SA), during a November 2023 election campaign rally.
Furthermore, a court decided in 2019 that the labelling of Höcke as a “fascist” has “a verifiable factual basis” and is thus in line with German law and does not constitute defamation.
Cordon sanitaire and political dilemmas
An AfD-led government in Thuringia is unlikely, however. All the established parties have vowed not to join a coalition with the AfD. Forming a coalition will thus be tricky.
While the liberal FDP and the Greens are expected to fail to reach the 5% threshold to make it into parliament, the SPD is only polling at 6%, which means that the CDU will have to rely on one of the parties on the political fringes to build a government.
The far-left Die Linke and its spin-off of the BSW, which are polling at around 32% combined, would be uneasy partners for the CDU, which is heavily at odds with their left-wing ideology.
“‘The democratic parties of the political centre in our country are slowly losing the basis of the citizens’ trust,” CDU helm Friedrich Merz said at a press conference on Tuesday.
An alternative option could be building a minority government following the election, which could switch between the support of the far left and the far right on a case-to-case basis. There has already been a precedent for this, as the AfD and the CDU voted together several times in the past term.
Furthermore, the incumbent coalition of the far-left prime minister Bodo Ramelow is also based on a minority government.
However, the recent deadly knife attack by a Syrian refugee in Solingen could further exacerbate the situation, as the AfD is likely to profit from the current salience of the migration topic and could thus perform better than anticipated at the upcoming election.
If the AfD were to enter the government, as Höcke hopes, the EU would also have tools to curb the AfD’s grip on the Eastern German state.
According to an analysis by the Jacques Delors Centre, the European Commission could apply the rule of law mechanism, which it famously used in the case of Hungary in 2022, to the German state.
Such a toolbox could include preventive measures like rule of law reports, corrective measures like infringement procedures, and budgetary measures, which could see the €1.5 billion heavy EU funds for Thuringia withheld from states that violate fundamental EU principles.
[Edited by Alice Taylor-Braçe]
Shot of confidence: Building trust in vaccination programs
Oxford University Press USA
A new paper in the Journal of Public Health, published by Oxford University Press, finds that highlighting the harms of not getting vaccinated is a more effective message than emphasizing the benefits of vaccination for individual patients or the benefits to public health.
Vaccination remains the most economical and effective public health strategy for reducing morbidity and mortality. But some vaccines, such as those for flu, pneumonia and HPV, are given voluntarily. Often due to misinformation or ignorance many people are reluctant to get vaccinated for various diseases (or to vaccinate their children). For years researchers have been investigating various strategies to try to persuade people to get their vaccines. This study, in China, designed a scenario experiment consisting of three experimental groups and one control group to test the effectiveness of various messaging strategies to induce people to get vaccinated for COVID-19.
For the first group, researchers gave them information that described the personal benefits of vaccination: “Vaccination can make you develop antibodies against COVID-19, thus reducing the likelihood of contracting COVID- 19 and developing severe symptoms after infection.” The second group received messages highlighting the benefits of vaccination for other people: “Vaccination can promote the formation of community herd immunity, thereby reducing the likelihood of community members getting infected with COVID-19 and developing severe symptoms after infection.” Investigators provided the third group of participants with information about the potential harm of not getting vaccinated: “If you are not vaccinated, you will not develop antibodies to COVID-19, and thus you will be more susceptible to COVID-19 and more likely to develop severe symptoms after infection.”
The study found that, while all groups targeted for vaccination were more likely to get a vaccine than the control group, the “potential harm” message patients showed the highest probability of vaccination, 72.6%. The “personal benefits” message group was 65.5% likely to get vaccinated. The “benefits other people” message group was only 62% likely to get vaccinated. Emphasizing the personal risk of not getting vaccinated was more effective than highlighting the potential personal gains of vaccination or benefits to the community.
“Previous studies on the impact of message frames on vaccination have rarely considered the different stages of vaccine launch,” said the paper’s lead author, Ke Feng. “This study explored the effect of information frames on vaccination in the late stage of vaccine launch when the vaccine is perceived to be effective. The findings of the study can provide valuable insights for improving the ability of governments to respond to pandemics.”
Direct correspondence to: Ke Feng Shenzhen Institute for Advanced Study University of Electronic Science and Technology of China Guanlan Street, Longhua District Shenzhen, PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA fengk@uestc.edu.cn
To request a copy of the study, please contact: Daniel Luzer daniel.luzer@oup.com
Researchers at Tohoku University and Utsunomiya University have made a breakthrough in understanding the complex nature of turbulence in structures called "accretion disks" surrounding black holes, using state-of-the-art supercomputers to conduct the highest-resolution simulations to date. An accretion disk, as the name implies, is a disk-shaped gas that spirals inwards towards a central black hole.
There is a great interest in studying the unique and extreme properties of black holes. However, black holes do not allow light to escape, and therefore cannot be directly perceived by telescopes. In order to probe black holes and study them, we look at how they affect their surroundings instead. Accretion disks are one such way to indirectly observe the effects of black holes, as they emit electromagnetic radiation that can be seen by telescopes.
"Accurately simulating the behaviour of accretion disks significantly advances our understanding of physical phenomena around black holes," explains Yohei Kawazura, "It provides crucial insights for interpreting observational data from the Event Horizon Telescope."
The researchers utilized supercomputers such as RIKEN's "Fugaku" (the fastest computer in the world up until 2022) and NAOJ's "ATERUI II" to perform unprecedentedly high-resolution simulations. Although there have been previous numerical simulations of accretion disks, none have observed the inertial range because of the lack of computational resources. This study was the first to successfully reproduce the "inertial range" connecting large and small eddies in accretion disk turbulence.
It was also discovered that "slow magnetosonic waves" dominate this range. This finding explains why ions are selectively heated in accretion disks. The turbulent electromagnetic fields in accretion disks interact with charged particles, potentially accelerating some to extremely high energies.
In magnetohydronamics, magnetosonic waves (slow and fast) and Alfvén waves make up the basic types of waves. Slow magnetosonic waves were found to dominate the inertial range, carrying about twice the energy of Alfvén waves. The research also highlights a fundamental difference between accretion disk turbulence and solar wind turbulence, where Alfvén waves dominate.
This advancement is expected to improve the physical interpretation of observational data from radio telescopes focused on regions near black holes.
The study was published in Science Advances on August 28, 2024.
The spatial structures of magnetorotational turbulence in an accretion disk (modeled). (A) shows the flow and (B) shows the magnetic field intensity. White lines represent typical magnetic field lines.
Dancing galaxies make a monster at the cosmic dawn
National Institutes of Natural Sciences
image:
Artist’s impression of the interacting galaxies observed in this research. The gravitational interactions during the merger trigger both starburst and quasar activity.
Credit: Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), T.Izumi et al.
Astronomers have spotted a pair of galaxies in the act of merging 12.8 billion years ago. The characteristics of these galaxies indicate that the merger will form a monster galaxy, one of the brightest types of objects in the Universe. These results are important for understanding the early evolution of galaxies and black holes in the early Universe.
Quasars are bright objects powered by matter falling into a supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy in the early Universe. The most accepted theory is that when two gas-rich galaxies merge to form a single larger galaxy, the gravitational interaction of the two galaxies causes gas to fall towards the supermassive black hole in one or both of the galaxies, causing quasar activity.
To test this theory, an international team of researchers led by Takuma Izumi used the ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) radio telescope to study the earliest known pair of close quasars. This pair was discovered by Yoshiki Matsuoka, at Ehime University in Japan, in images taken by the Subaru Telescope. Located in the direction of the constellation Virgo, this pair of quasars existed during the first 900 million years of the Universe. The pair is dim, indicating that the quasars are still in the early stages of their evolution. The ALMA observations mapped the host galaxies of the quasars and showed that the galaxies are linked by a “bridge” of gas and dust. This indicates that the two galaxies are in fact merging.
The ALMA observations also allowed the team to measure the amount of gas, the material for new star formation. The team found that the two galaxies are very rich in gas, suggesting that in addition to more vigorous quasar activity in the future, the merger will also trigger a rapid increase in star formation, known as a “starburst.” The combination of starburst activity and vigorous quasar activity is expected to create a super-bright object in the early Universe known as a monster galaxy.
Merging Gas-rich Galaxies that Harbor Low-luminosity Twin Quasars at z = 6.05: A Promising Progenitor of the Most Luminous Quasars
Article Publication Date
29-Aug-2024
International consortium with NASA reveals hidden impact of spaceflight on gut health
International team led by UCD and McGill University reveals previously unknown effects on physiology that could shape the future of long-duration space missions.
UCD Research & Innovation
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN: Scientists have uncovered how spaceflight profoundly alters the gut microbiome, revealing previously unknown effects on host physiology that could shape the future of long-duration space missions.
Led by University College Dublin (UCD) and McGill University, Canada, in collaboration with NASA and an international consortium, the research offers the most detailed profile to date of how space travel impacts the gut microbes we carry into space.
Published in npj Biofilms and Microbiomes, the study used advanced genetic technologies to examine changes in the gut microbiome, colons, and livers of mice aboard the International Space Station (ISS) over three months. The findings reveal significant shifts in specific bacteria and corresponding changes in host gene expression associated to immune and metabolic dysfunction commonly observed in space, offering new insights into how these changes may affect astronaut physiology during extended missions.
Dr Emmanuel Gonzalez, McGill University, and first author of the study, said: "Spaceflight extensively alters astronaut physiology, yet many underlying factors remain a mystery. By integrating new genomic methods, we can simultaneously explore gut bacteria and host genetics in extraordinary detail and are beginning to see patterns that could explain spaceflight pathology. It’s clear we’re not just sending humans and animals to space, but entire ecosystems, the understanding of which is crucial to help us develop safeguards for future space exploration."
The international collaboration, spearheaded by UCD with NASA GeneLab’s Analysis Working Groups, is part of the recent Nature Portfolio package: The Second Space Age: Omics, Platforms and Medicine across Space Orbits - the largest coordinated release of space biology discoveries in history. These findings highlight Ireland's growing role in microbiome and space life sciences research and demonstrate how understanding biological adaptations to spaceflight can not only advance aerospace medicine but also have significant implications for health on Earth.
Professor Nicholas Brereton, UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science, and senior author of the study, said: "These discoveries highlight the intricate dialogue between specific gut bacteria and their mouse hosts, critically involved in bile acid, cholesterol, and energy metabolism. They shed new light on the importance of microbiome symbiosis to health and how these Earth-evolved relationships may be vulnerable to the stresses of space. We hope this research exemplifies how cooperative Open Science can drive discoveries with clear medical benefits on Earth, while also supporting the upcoming Artemis missions, the deployment of the Gateway deep space station, and a crewed mission to Mars."
Ames Space Biology Portfolio Scientist, NASA Ames Research Center, Jonathan Galazka said: "These discoveries are an important piece in our understanding of how spaceflight impacts astronauts and will aid the design of safe and effective missions to Earth orbit, the Moon, and Mars. Moreover, the collaborative nature of this project is a blueprint for how Open Science can accelerate the pace of discovery.”
NASA, ESA missions help scientists uncover how solar wind gets energy
Since the 1960s, astronomers have wondered how the Sun’s supersonic “solar wind,” a stream of energetic particles that flows out into the solar system, continues to receive energy once it leaves the Sun. Now, they may have discovered the answer
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
image:
This conceptual image shows Parker Solar Probe about to enter the solar corona.
Since the 1960s, astronomers have wondered how the Sun’s supersonic “solar wind,” a stream of energetic particles that flows out into the solar system, continues to receive energy once it leaves the Sun. Now, thanks to a lucky lineup of a NASA and an ESA (European Space Agency)/NASA spacecraft both currently studying the Sun, they may have discovered the answer — knowledge that is a crucial piece of the puzzle to help scientists better forecast solar activity between the Sun and Earth.
A paper published in the Aug. 30, 2024, issue of the journal Science provides persuasive evidence that the fastest solar winds are powered by magnetic “switchbacks,” or large kinks in the magnetic field, near the Sun.
“Our study addresses a huge open question about how the solar wind is energized and helps us understand how the Sun affects its environment and, ultimately, the Earth,” said Yeimy Rivera, co-leader of the study and a postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, part of Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. “If this process happens in our local star, it’s highly likely that this powers winds from other stars across the Milky Way galaxy and beyond and could have implications for the habitability of exoplanets.”
Previously, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe found that these switchbacks were common throughout the solar wind. Parker, which became the first craft to enter the Sun's magnetic atmosphere in 2021, allowed scientists to determine that switchbacks become more distinct and more powerful close to the Sun. Up to now, however, scientists lacked experimental evidence that this interesting phenomenon actually deposits enough energy to be important in the solar wind.
“About three years ago, I was giving a talk about how fascinating these waves are,” said co-author Mike Stevens, astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics. “At the end, an astronomy professor stood up and said, ‘that's neat, but do they actually matter?’”
To answer this, the team of scientists had to use two different spacecraft. Parker is built to fly through the Sun’s atmosphere, or “corona.” ESA's and NASA’s Solar Orbiter mission is also on an orbit that takes it relatively close to the Sun, and it measures solar wind at larger distances.
The discovery was made possible because of a coincidental alignment in February 2022 that allowed both Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter to measure the same solar wind stream within two days of each other. Solar Orbiter was almost halfway to the Sun while Parker was skirting the edge of the Sun's magnetic atmosphere.
“We didn't initially realize that Parker and Solar Orbiter were measuring the same thing at all. Parker saw this slower plasma near the Sun that was full of switchback waves, and then Solar Orbiter recorded a fast stream which had received heat and with very little wave activity,” said Samuel Badman, astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics and the other co-lead of the study. “When we connected the two, that was a real eureka moment.”
Scientists have long known that energy is moved throughout the Sun‘s corona and the solar wind, at least in part, through what are known as "Alfvén waves.” These waves transport energy through a plasma, the superheated state of matter that makes up the solar wind.
However, how much the Alfvén waves evolve and interact with the solar wind between the Sun and Earth couldn't be measured — until these two missions were sent closer to the Sun than ever before, at the same time. Now, scientists can directly determine how much energy is stored in the magnetic and velocity fluctuations of these waves near the corona, and how much less energy is carried by the waves farther from the Sun.
The new research shows that the Alfvén waves in the form of switchbacks provide enough energy to account for the heating and acceleration documented in the faster stream of the solar wind as it flows away from the Sun.
“It took over half a century to confirm that Alfvenic wave acceleration and heating are important processes, and they happen in approximately the way we think they do,” said John Belcher, emeritus professor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who co-discovered Alfvén waves in the solar wind but was not involved in this study.
In addition to helping scientists better forecast solar activity and space weather, such information helps us understand mysteries of the universe elsewhere and how Sun-like stars and stellar winds operate everywhere.
“This discovery is one of the key puzzle pieces to answer the 50-year-old question of how the solar wind is accelerated and heated in the innermost portions of the heliosphere, bringing us closer to closure to one of the main science objectives of the Parker Solar Probe mission,” said Adam Szabo, Parker Solar Probe mission science lead at NASA.
By Megan Watzke Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
An artist’s concept shows Solar Orbiter near the Sun.
Credit
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab
