(CNN) – The Northern Light It can be described as the largest light show on Earth. This phenomenon, unique to the highest latitudes, has amazed scientists for centuries.
Experts have a theory about the causes of northern lights, but have never been able to prove them – until now.
Finally the great mystery of the dawn is solved
A team of physicists at Iowa State University has finally shown that “bright auroras are produced by powerful electromagnetic waves during geomagnetic storms.” According to a recently published study.
These phenomena, also known as alpine waves, accelerate electrons towards the Earth, creating particles of light known to us as northern lights.
“Measurements revealed that this small population of electrons has a ‘vibrational acceleration’ caused by the electric field of the Alpine wave, which catches a wave and is constantly accelerating as it moves with the waves,” said Greg Howes, associate professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Iowa.
This theory of electrons was first proposed in 1946 by the Russian physicist Lev Landau in “surfing” in the field of electricity, and it was called landing dumping. His theory has now been proven.
They manage to recreate the northern lights
Scientists have been understanding for decades how Aurora could be created, but for the first time they were able to simulate it in a laboratory on a large plasma device located in UCLA’s Plasma Basic Science facility.
Scientists used a 20-meter-long camera to recreate the Earth’s magnetic field using the magnetic field coils in the UCLA device. Inside the chamber, scientists created a plasma that looked like it was in space near Earth.
“Using a specially designed antenna, we quickly swung a garden tube up and down and watched the wave travel through the tube, throwing Alvin’s waves down the machine,” Howes said. When electrons began to “surf” with waves, they used another special instrument to measure how those electrons received energy from the wave.
Although the experiment did not recreate the colorful glow we see in the sky, “our measurements in the laboratory clearly matched the predictions from computer simulations and mathematical calculations, showing that electrons that can navigate in alphanumeric waves can accelerate electrons (72 million km / h).”
“These experiments allow us to make key measurements that show that spatial measurements and theory actually explain an important way in which auroras are formed,” said Craig Kletching, co-author of the study.
This discovery will help to better understand the climate in space.
Astronauts across the country were delighted to see the news. I was so excited! It’s very rare to see a laboratory experiment that confirms a theory or model of the space environment, ”said Patrick Cohen, a scientist at NASA’s heliophysics division. “The space in the lab that can’t be easily simulated is huge,” he explained.
Cohen hopes that understanding the acceleration mechanism of electrons that cause auroras will be useful in many future studies.
Northern lights as seen from the International Space Station.
“It helps to better understand the weather in space. The electron acceleration mechanism verified by this program works in other parts of the solar system, so it will have many applications in space physics. It will be useful in predicting space weather, NASA is very interested,” Cohen told CNN. Said in an email sent to.
There is a long way to go
The theory of how the aurora is formed has now been proven, and there is still a long way to go to predict how strong each storm will be.
“Predicting how strong a particular geomagnetic storm will be based on the Sun’s observations and spacecraft measurements between Earth and the Sun remains an unresolved challenge,” Howes said in an email.
“We have established the binding of electrons that can navigate the alpine waves at an altitude of 16,000 km above the Earth’s surface, and now we must learn to predict the strength of those alpine waves using the spacecraft’s observations,” he said.
