The 'hidden' solar flares from the far side of the sun: Nasa reveals stunning images of giant gamma ray bursts that throw out billion ton clouds of plasma
- The ‘behind-the-limb’ solar flares come from the far side of the sun, and shouldn't be seen by the craft
- But, the fast moving particles accelerated by eruptions travel around sun to produce gamma-ray glow
- They are all associated with coronal mass ejections, with most recent moving at nearly 5 million mph
NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has captured rare ‘behind-the-limb’ solar flares coming from the far side of the sun.
These high-energy gamma ray glows are all linked to fast coronal mass ejections, which launch billion-ton clouds of solar plasma into space.
These emissions should be blocked by the sun, as they come from the opposite side, and researchers say they traveled hundreds of thousands of miles in just minutes to be detected by the craft.
Scroll down for video
Fermi’s Large Area Telescope has captured gamma rays with energies as high as 3 billion electron volts, according to NASA.
And, the agency’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observation spacecraft (STEREO) which were monitoring the far side of the sun at the time of the eruption, allowed for the first-ever direct imaging of these behind-the-limb gamma ray events.
The gamma rays detected by LAT are roughly 30 times more energetic than previous ‘hidden flare’ events.
‘Fermi is seeing gamma rays from the side of the sun we’re facing, but the emission is produced by streams of particles blasted out of solar flares on the far side of the sun,’ said Nicola Omodei, a researcher at Stanford University in California.
‘These particles must travel some 300,000 miles within about five minutes of the eruption to produce this light.’
The events occurred on October 11, 2013, January 6 and September 1, 2014, and all were associated with fast coronal mass ejections.
The most recent CME event was moving at nearly 5 million miles an hour, according to NASA.
‘Large magnetic field structures can connect the acceleration site with distant part of the solar surface,’ NASA explains.
‘Because charged particles must remain attached to magnetic field lines, the research team thinks particles accelerated at the CME traveled to the sun’s visible side along magnetic field lines connecting both locations.
‘As the particles impacted the surface, they generated gamma-ray emission through a variety of processes.
‘One prominent mechanism is thought to be proton collisions that result in a particle called pion, which quickly decays into gamma rays.’
Fermi has so far doubled the known number of these events since its 2008 launch, and has detected emissions from more than 40 solar flares.
And with the STEREO craft at its aid, they’ve increased their capabilities even further.
‘Observations by Fermi’s LAT continue to have a significant impact on the solar physics community in their own right,’ said co-author Melissa Pesce-Rollins, a researcher at the National Institute of Nuclear Physics in Pisa, Italy, ’but the addition of STEREO observations provides extremely valuable information of how they mesh with the big picture of solar activity.'
Most watched News videos
- Terrifying moment tiger attacks man inside zoo enclosure in China
- Muslim American woman films man as he bullies her at cafe
- 'My mum's a witch!': 'Drugged' Mischa Barton's scary breakdown
- Haunting footage of final moments of Endah Cakrawati before crash
- Stevie Jacobs cries on-air after patient he visits dies of cancer
- Ashton Kutcher speaks out against Immigration Ban at SAG awards
- Woman hears for the first time since she was two and a half
- Julia Louis Dreyfus mocks & stands up to Trump during SAGs
- Amazing!: Toddler climbs gate with incredible precision
- Roger and Mirka Federer share beautiful moment after Aus Open win
- Winona Ryder looks confused during David Harbour's speech at SAGs
- Masked thugs in Belgravia hurl missiles and abuse at squatters
- PICTURED: White university student named as the sole...
- Hollywood declares war on Trump: SAG Awards descends into...
- Islamic State's chief executioner - who has beheaded more...
- Pictured: Former KGB general who helped MI6 spy compile...
- £148m lottery winner is DUMPED by his stable-girl fiancée...
- 'This is not a Muslim ban!' Trump defends his 'extreme...
- Revealed: American dementia sufferer found DUMPED in UK...
- 'I was touched by his pure love for his fiancée': Stevie...
- I sold my £200,000 dream home for £2 over feud with...
- Alton Towers crash victim Vicky Balch admits she...
- Father discovers the bodies of his son, daughter and four...
- Wife and child look on in horror as tiger drags husband...
What's your view?
Be the first to comment...