Mission to probe solar system explosions

Norwich (England), Sept 9: Scientists will launch a new space mission later this month that will study the most violent explosions in the solar system.

By monitoring the Sun's magnetic field the Solar-B mission, a British, US and Japanese collaboration, hopes to learn more about solar flares, bursts of energy equal to tens of millions of hydrogen bombs exploding in a matter of minutes.

''What we want to do is explore the most energetic explosions in the solar system so we can actually predict when they will occur and why they happen,'' Professor Louise Harra, of University College London's Mullard Space Science Laboratory, told a science conference.

Instruments on the spacecraft will measure the movement of magnetic fields and how the Sun's atmosphere responds to them.

The mission will focus on solar flares' trigger phase.

Solar flares occur when energy stored in twisted magnetic fields is suddenly released. The largest flares occur where there are the strongest magnetic fields. Flares are usually associated with sunspots, dark cool areas caused by intense magnetic fields breaking through the sun's surface.

They pose a danger to astronauts and spacecraft and can cause havoc with satellite links, power grids and mobile phones networks on Earth.

''Solar flares are fast and furious, they can cause communication black-outs on Earth within 30 minutes of a flare erupting on the Sun's surface,'' said Harra.

''In terms of heat it is 10,000 times hotter than a volcanic eruption,'' she added in a briefing at the British Association for the Advancement of Science festival.

The heat generated by a solar flare, which was first observed in England in 1859, causes atmospheric gases to start to move at enormous speeds, more than 10 times faster than the speed of Concorde.

Solar B is set to be launched on September 22 from the Uchinoura Space Centre in southern Japan. During its three-year mission it will orbit at an altitude of 600 kilometres (375 miles) to get a continuous view of the Sun.

Harra said a better understanding of solar flares could provide information about how magnetic fields release huge amounts of energy and whether life can exist somewhere else.

REUTERS