In a recent study led by the University of Minnesota Twin Cities researchers, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has provided groundbreaking insights into the generation and acceleration of the solar wind, a stream of charged particles released from the sun’s corona. The study, published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, has helped scientists understand the heat flux, one form of energy flow, in the solar wind.
Whistler Waves and Electrostatic Waves
The researchers discovered that in a region closer to the sun, inside around 28 solar radii, there are no whistler waves, which were previously believed to regulate the heat flux in the solar wind. Instead, they found a different kind of wave that was electrostatic instead of electromagnetic. Additionally, they observed the effect of an electric field created in part by the pull of the sun’s gravity, similar to what happens at the Earth’s poles where a “polar wind” is accelerated.