Die Pole der Sonne verschieben sich: Was wird mit uns passieren?

the sun is preparing to flip its magnetic poles similar to the earth the sun also has a magnetic north and a magnetic south but unlike the earth the switching process of the sun's poles is more frequent and easier to predict the next flip is expected to occur this year between April and August takes place as apocalyptic as it may sound you do n't have to worry if you are around 30 years old you have experienced this phenomenon more than once as the sun changes every 11 years you probably did n't notice any changes back then because this process does Life on Earth doesn't affect life as much but this time things could be a little different. On Earth, ocean currents play a crucial role in influencing both the climate and the weather by distributing heat from the equator to the poles. On the Sun, these currents are similar more like an ocean of plasma but they not only transport heat but also carry electromagnetic energy. This happens because the sun is a huge ball of hot and ionized gases that constantly flow in its core. By fusing hydrogen atoms to form helium, our star produces an enormous amount Energy released which leads to these strong flowing electrical currents and whenever you have currents you have magnetic fields it's easier to understand if you think about that classic experiment with a wire and a nail that you probably did in elementary school when electricity is passing through Flowing through a wire a magnetic field is created around the wire so if you connect a wire to a battery and wrap it around a nail the nail becomes a magnet this is similar to how electric currents on the sun create magnetic fields the entire process uses it the sun creates its magnetic field is called a dynamo we cannot observe it directly but we can see its effects on the sun's surface when plasma and magnetic fluxes become unstable and intense they manifest themselves as sunspots you already know a lot about how these dark areas on the sun's surface work of the dynamo remains a mystery but after centuries of observing these sunspots scientists have learned something important the dynamo process follows a pattern about every decade it reorganizes itself the sun's polar magnetic fields weaken eventually reaching zero and then return but with opposite polarity in In the 1950's researchers found that when sunspots start to build up and become more intense it means the poles are preparing for a reversal and in recent years solar activity has been exceptionally high we're talking more solar flares more bursts of electromagnetic radiation and more plasma clouds the being thrown into space it's like we're sitting in the front row of the most spectacular fireworks display in the solar system. In fact, the sun probably has n't been this vibrant for two decades. Experts currently think that the polar fields are almost synchronous and are steadily getting weaker, they're getting closer and closer to that Zero point but we have not yet reached the point of reversal although it might seem that the sun turns its magnetic poles like a primordial work every 11 years the truth is not as neat as it seems this path can be and some aspects of the phenomenon are always still very difficult to predict let's take for example the last solar cycle the northern hemisphere began its magnetic reversal in early June 2012 but then stalled and remained at the neutral point in the southern hemisphere until the end of 2014 everything went more smoothly here the polarity changed in mid 2013 this time it seems Sun actually plays nice things are said to be much smoother in this cycle with more even transitions of the poles but here is the interesting reversal processes are never the same that makes this phenomenon so interesting to observe but at the same time it is difficult to predict how it will happen to us down here Here on Earth we do n't have to worry too much about these intense solar explosions happening 150 million kilometers away but if and I emphasize if a solar storm were to reach our planet the biggest threat would probably be the disruption of communications satellites in space although things could In this cycle change that takes place in the year 204 will be different because the number of satellites has skyrocketed in recent years, for example Elon Musk's Starling system alone includes more than 4000 of them all satellites along with communications and GPS satellites could be affected by a strong solar storm or even destroyed Although the chances of a strong solar storm hitting the Earth are slim it is not impossible in 1859 during the Carrington Event a storm occurred near the peak of the solar cycle which caused currents to ignite fires through telegraph lines and disrupted news worldwide fell silent when telegraph communications failed just imagine what a solar storm could do to our vast number of satellites today it could affect everything we rely on every day from space-based communications and navigation services to weather forecasting services even the distribution of electricity on the ground could be affected you can forget about watching youtube or brightside because if such an event were to happen today it could cause an internet apocalypse and send countless people and businesses offline there is a prediction that if a Carrington class event happened today it would cause damage in the area of 0.6 to 2.6 trillion dollars and I'm just talking about the United States. Luckily for us, solar storms as intense as the Carrington event happen only about once every 500 years. Bad news for communications satellites but great news for northern lights watchers during the Carrington event During the event, spectacular Northern Lights lit up the sky as aurora displays reached far beyond their usual ranges. The Northern Lights were seen as far south as Cuba and Honolulu Hawaii while the Southern Lights were seen as far north as Santiago Chile. For many people around the world, this was their first sight on the aurora which made them obsessed with the unusually bright skies some of them thought it was the end of the world while others started their day early assuming the sun had risen after hearing birds chirping and seeing the bright skies today we know that is nothing unusual considering that the occurrence of auroras at lower latitudes is one of the expected effects of the Sun's magnetic pole reversal. Normally these fascinating phenomena are found between 60 and 75° latitude but during the last magnetic pole reversal in 2013, intense aurorae were observed below 50 ° observed eyewitnesses described these auroras as blood or deep crimson red glowing so brightly that you could read a newspaper in their light it is important to study this phenomenon and not be afraid of it the reversal of the magnetic poles on the sun is actually a great opportunity for scientists to better To understand how our star works, as there are still many pieces missing in the overall dynamo situation, we are still not very good at predicting why some solar cycles are more intense than others or when exactly a coronal mass ejection will erupt, but the ability to predict this in advance is becoming more and more necessary as we move forward more and more people are venturing into space the more people are outside the Earth, the more exposed they are to these powerful solar storms. This is why the scientific community wants to know more precisely when a solar storm can cause damage to spacecraft and space stations. In addition, it would help meteorologists make advances in weather forecasting not only on Earth but also in space the whole point is to make space travel safer as interest in manned missions to the Moon and Mars is growing every year, another reason why it is important to learn more about the sun's polineversion is to better understand how the sun's mysterious interior works, which could actually help us understand aspects of other stars in the universe and perhaps bring us closer to the answer to the ultimate question of why are we here