[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/10317\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EShedding light on the Sun\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor most of humankind\u2019s history, it has been hard to explain the Sun as anything other than a powerful deity.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EFor instance, the ancient Greek god Helios \u2013 the personification of the Sun \u2013 raced his chariot across the sky to create night and day, whereas the ancient Egyptians worshipped their falcon-headed sun god, Ra, as creator of the universe.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EPowerful surprises\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003ESince then, science has revealed that, for example, the Sun on average turns on its axis once every 28 days. But at its equator, the hot plasma ball rotates once every 25 days, while it takes around 35 days at the poles, creating a swirling soup of piping hot plasma.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003ENonetheless, the power of the Sun can still offer surprises, with blasts fierce enough to fry communication satellites or electronics on Earth. Scientists warn of more powerful solar flares as a peak of activity approaches in late 2024 and early 2025.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018There is this turbulent motion inside our star, called convection, that is a bit like how water wrinkles just before it boils,\u2019 said Professor Sacha Brun, director of research at CEA Paris-Saclay, part of the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EAn infamous magnetic storm that hit Earth in September 1859, known as the Carrington Event, triggered spectacular auroras far from polar regions and sizzled telegraph systems around the world.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThere have been more since. In 1989, a geomagnetic storm caused a blackout in Quebec, Canada, according to Brun.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EGreater knowledge about the Sun is needed to predict and understand such events.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThat swirling ball of hydrogen and helium is also unimaginably hot \u2013 with core temperatures of 15 million \u00b0C. And it\u2019s ginormous \u2013 more than 1 million Earths fit inside the Sun.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EIts peaceful presence on a summer\u2019s day belies the intense nuclear reactions at its core that generate vast amounts of energy. The Sun is a churning ball of plasma, with gases so hot that electrons are booted out of atoms, generating intense magnetic explosions from its surface that spew billions of tonnes of matter into space.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMagnetic charm\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EAs it spins, the Sun\u2019s mechanical energy turns into magnetic energy \u2013 a bit like the dynamo on a bicycle light, where pedal motion is converted into magnetic energy.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EOn the Sun, twisty ribbons of magnetism rise and break out as sunspots, dark patches at the surface where the magnetic field is 3 000 times more intense than in the surrounding areas.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003EThe Earth bathes in the turbulent magnetic atmosphere of our star\r\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EProfessor Sacha Brun, WHOLE SUN\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003ESunspots can trigger those solar flares that damage electrical equipment. But this activity isn\u2019t constant.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018The magnetism of the Sun is variable over an 11-year cycle,\u2019 said Brun, an astrophysicist.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EOver that cycle, coronal mass ejections rise in frequency, from one every three days to an average of three per day at its peak.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018As we go further into the cycle, more outbursts will emerge from the Sun,\u2019 Brun said. \u2018People don\u2019t realise that the Earth bathes in the turbulent magnetic atmosphere of our star.\u2019\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003ESo there\u2019s an obvious need to anticipate when such solar storms approach. For example, a solar flare in February 2022 knocked out 40 SpaceX commercial satellites by destroying their electronics.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThose energetic particles take just 15 minutes to reach Earth from the Sun. The threat posed by magnetic clouds usually takes a few days, offering more time to brace for any onslaught.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EBrun co-leads an EU-funded project called \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cordis.europa.eu\/project\/id\/810218\u0022\u003EWHOLE SUN\u003C\/a\u003E to understand the interior and exterior layers of the only star in the Earth\u2019s solar system.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003ERunning for seven years through April 2026, the initiative focuses on the inner turbulence of the Sun and the complex physics that turns the inner turmoil into magnetism in the outer layers.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThis requires the most powerful supercomputers in the world. Yet forecasting solar flares means that scientists gain greater understanding of the insides of the Sun.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EA star is born\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EWhat about the distant past of the Sun? It has been around for 4.6 billion years \u2013 100 million years before Earth. Where and how it was formed would seem to be an impenetrable mystery.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003ENot so, according to Dr Maria Lugaro at the Konkoly Observatory of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003ELugaro, an Italian astrophysicist, is researching this very question in the EU-funded\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cordis.europa.eu\/project\/id\/724560\u0022\u003ERADIOSTAR\u003C\/a\u003E project. It began in 2017 and runs through August this year.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003EWe believe that the Sun wasn\u2019t born alone, but was born in a star-forming region where there\u2019s lots of stars\r\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EDr Maria Lugaro, RADIOSTAR\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018We believe that the Sun wasn\u2019t born alone, but was born in a star-forming region where there\u2019s lots of stars,\u2019 Lugaro said.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EShe is looking into this past by examining chemical fossils in meteorites today.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003ERadioactive atoms are unstable. They release energy and decay into so-called daughter atoms, over a certain length of time, which are measurable. The daughters are therefore chemical fossils, offering information about long-gone radioactive atoms.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003ELugaro\u2019s research suggests that the Sun originated in a stellar nursery that contained lots of siblings, including exploding stars \u2013 supernovas. But digging into the Sun\u2019s history first requires finding meteorites, bits of rock formed before Earth.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThese meteorites can contain traces of the radioactive atoms such as aluminium-26 and hafnium-182. It is known that these lived only a certain length of time. Together, traces of such atoms can be used as a radioactive clock to compute the age of the stars that made them, relative to the age of the Sun.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cb\u003EVivid discourse\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003ESome radioactive atoms are made in only certain types of stars. Their presence in meteorites helps to recreate a picture of the Sun\u2019s birthplace, albeit one that\u2019s up for debate.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EIt may be that the Sun was birthed amid dust and gas clouds in a tempestuous region alongside supergiant stars and exploding stars.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EWithin perhaps 20 million years, the different stars begin to make their own way out of the nursery. But things are far from being scientifically settled.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Every year there\u2019s debate: is the Sun normal or is it a weird star?\u2019 said Lugaro. \u2018It\u2019s quite fun.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EResearch in this article was funded via the EU\u2019s European Research Council (ERC). 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