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15 Million Degrees BOOK OF THE WEEK different speeds. Consequently, solar magnetic fields, but now NASA the magnetic fields in the Sun are I’m fascinated. THE AUTHOR being continually twisted and Understanding the Sun, Green contorted, storing up energy in points out, is more than a mere There’s a exactly the same way that twisted academic activity. Our very elastic bands do. survival on Earth may depend on Where loops of magnetic field understanding the “space MAX ALEXANDER break through the surface, we see weather” created by the nearest storm brewing sunspots – nearly always in pairs, star. Studies of other Sun-like stars since the loop emerges from the reveal that they can – admittedly Sun at one point and re-enters at not very often – launch mega- The Sun’s magnetic fields make another. Where a magnetic field flares that are quite capable of becomes so twisted that it snaps, frying a planet like the Earth. it much more than a dull ball of “reconnecting” with other fields, A more serious concern, however, hot gas, says Marcus Chown the energy unleashed hurls says Green, are coronal mass ejec- million-degree plasma tens of tions (CMEs), which should more thousands of miles above the Sun accurately be called coronal Lucie Green, professor of physics at in a solar flare. There is even a magnetic eruptions. First recog- the Mullard Space Science Labora- million-mile-an-hour hurricane – nised only in the 1970s, these are tory, University College London, lives the solar wind – that blows from missile-like ejections into space of in Godalming with her mathemati- the Sun, carrying its magnetic field vast amounts of solar plasma and cian/comedian husband Matt Parker. out through the Solar System. In magnetic field. We are talking “Our conversations always seem a very real sense, the Earth orbits about something of roughly the to turn to what we find most interest- inside the atmosphere of the Sun. mass of Mount Everest hurled ing in science and maths and how In fact, that atmosphere comes to into space at 500 times the speed we can convince other people to feel an end only way beyond the of a passenger jet. The Carrington the same way. And I’m always tripping outermost planet, where the solar event – the most violent solar over the kit he has bought to build wind slams into the interstellar event ever recorded – is now a new experiment to demonstrate medium like a snow plough recognised to have been a CME. his latest passion in maths.” running into a snow drift. On In 1859, we had the crude tech- In 2013, Green became the first 25 August 2012, Nasa’s Voyager 1 nology to detect a CME, but the woman to present The Sky at Night, space probe, launched in 1977, world was not so dependent on the BBC’s long-running television detected a strong increase in that technology that it suffered programme on astronomy, and she “cosmic rays”, high-energy any serious harm. Contrast this presently serves as chief stargazer particles from our galaxy, making with the situation today, says at the Society for Popular Astronomy. it the first human vehicle to leave Green. Changes in the magnetic Does she believe that science com- the Sun’s atmosphere and taste field across electrical power grids munication work requires an outgoing interstellar space. can induce currents big enough to personality to be successful? melt equipment. Such induction “Any public engagement activities lthough 15 Million Degrees was behind the electrocution of have to be beneficial for the audi- starts off slowly, Green soon telegraph operators in 1859 and ence and also for the scientist. The A gets into her stride. She is at a major power outage in Quebec wonderful thing, though, is that there her most engaging when telling us on 13 March 1989. But the real are so many forms that the engage- 15 Million Degrees: A Journey magnetic missiles at our planet physicist Sir Arthur Eddington source. The Sun’s central tempera- what the Sun means to her and in threat today is to the dense ring ment activity can take,” she observes. to the Centre of the Sun with devastating effect. deduced the internal structure of ture depends in essence only on relaying personal anecdotes, of satellites that girdles our planet “There is something for all person- By Lucie Green Solar physicist Lucie Green is the Sun and its central tempera- its mass, and would be the same We are talking about which bring her subject alive. She and on which our lives now ality types, from writing articles to Viking, 304pp, £18.99 in love with solar magnetic fields ture of more than 10 million for a similar mass of bananas, writes about a Sun-observing depend. Communications satel- giving talks or producing podcasts ISBN 9780670922185 (she really is!). She says her office degrees merely by assuming that discarded Tesco plastic bags or something of roughly the satellite currently under develop- lites, weather satellites, global and working with artists. To be Published 31 March 2016 at University College London’s it is a giant ball of gas. The key microwave ovens. mass of Mount Everest hurled ment by the European Space positioning satellites – which not effective, you need to understand Mullard Space Science Laboratory to this was his recognition that, Magnetism, however, trans- Agency: “I get very excited about only allow us to know our loca- your strengths and where you can cross the world, telegraph is full of pipe cleaners that she because the Sun is not noticeably forms the Sun from Eddington’s into space at 500 times the Solar Orbiter. But it is hard not to tion but play a crucial role in have the most impact. But you also operators were electrocuted, has twisted into loops and braids expanding or contracting, every predictable and somewhat dull speed of a passenger jet get excited about a new spacecraft global financial transactions need to understand the viewpoints, A and at low latitudes, a blood- and spirals in an attempt to portion of its interior must ball of hot gas into an unpredict- when bits are being put together – are all at risk. In rich countries, interests and perhaps even concerns red aurora borealis appeared, so visual ise what is happen- be in perfect balance. able, seething, explosive, infinitely in the building where you work!” efforts have been made to harden of the audience to get the activity bright it was possible to read a ing on her number one In such a state of surprising laboratory for extreme field, which in turn affects the Green’s enthusiasm for her subject infrastructure against a CME. and content right.” newspaper by it at midnight. The favourite heavenly “hydrostatic equilib- physics. movement of the charges, which is infectious. I confess that before However, it is a sobering thought If Green won the lottery tomorrow, Carrington event, named after body. “You’ll prob- rium”, the force of Magnetic fields are generated changes the magnetic field again, this book I had little interest in that the Sun, which has given us would she be tempted to sign up astronomer Richard Carrington ably end up thinking gravity pulling by moving electric charges. In the and so on. It is this complex inter- life, could in an instant return us for a spot of space tourism? (pictured), who noticed a flare I am completely inward on a chunk case of a mundane bar magnet, play between the hot plasma and to a pre-electrical age. “I wouldn’t be able to resist. It’s on the Sun from south of London obsessed by the of solar matter the movement is only of the elec- magnetic field that is behind all “Our deadline to understand not just about the experience that at the same time that a magnet- Sun,” she says. “And must be perfectly trons inside atoms, and the atoms the myriad solar magnetic the Sun is becoming more urgent,” I would have but about investing ometer at Kew flew off-scale, you’d be right.” countered by the stay put. The key thing to under- phenomena from the magnetic says Green. Time, as this fine in a technology so that it might one changed for ever our ideas about “If the Sun had no force of the hot gas stand about the Sun is that it is whorls of sunspots to the mega- book shows, is of the essence. day become commonplace.” the Sun. Before 1 September 1859, magnetic field, it would be pushing outwards. not an ordinary gas – it is an elec- detonations of solar flares. What gives her hope? “My PhD our nearest star was believed to as uninteresting as most astrono- Although we now know that the trically charged gas, or “plasma”, Actually, there is one other Marcus Chown, formerly a radio students, the new [Solar Orbiter] influence the Earth only through mers think it is,” said the Ameri- Sun’s heat comes from nuclear of nuclei and electrons. And, in essential ingredient, says Green. astronomer at the California satellites we are building and human its gravity, and of course the can physicist Robert Leighton. fusion of hydrogen to helium, the the solar plasma, the moving Because the Sun is not a rigid Institute of Technology, is author, curiosity.” warming effect of sunlight. After- Green agrees. And she makes a by- product of which is sunlight, charges that create the magnetic body, its exterior rotates at a most recently, of What a Karen Shook wards, it was realised that violent very good case for why Leighton remarkably Eddington’s conclu- fields are free to move, unlike the different rate from its interior, Wonderful World: Life, the To read this interview in full, visit: convulsions on the solar surface, was right.
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