A paper published in the journal Nature Physics on July 29th introduced the related research in detail. The "mini sun" is only 3 meters wide. Researchers call it the big red ball. Researchers use helium (which exists in the real sun) and turn it into plasma. The magnet in the center of the sphere produces a magnetic field. Once the team applies current to the machine, it can accurately simulate the normal operation of the plasma and magnetic field of the real sun.
"The satellite mission well recorded the source of the high-speed solar wind," Ethan Peterson, the first author of the study and a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said at a news conference. "We are trying to specifically study how the slow solar wind is generated and how it evolved when it spread to the Earth."
They turned their attention to the solar wind, which refers to the supersonic plasma charged particle flow from the upper atmosphere of the sun. They can reconstruct the Parker spiral of the solar magnetic field inside the big red ball. Peterson regards the reconstruction of the team as a spiral "large-scale map" and confirms how it is produced by the plasma flow of the sun.
In addition, the researchers also found the plasma "hiccup", which is a huge plasma jet flowing from the solar stream, and sometimes provides "fuel" for the solar wind. By monitoring the probes inside the big red balls, the team can see how they move and how fast the plasma rotates.
Peterson said: "satellites can observe these jets, but no one knows what drives them." We saw very similar' burps' in the experiment and determined their development patterns. "
The experiment of the big red ball aims to support the existing task and better understand the sun. NASA has previously launched a Parker solar probe, hoping to solve more mysteries surrounding its atmosphere and solar wind. Last week, a group reported that the solar terminator incident caused a plasma tsunami.