Studying the solar wind

Scientific papers have been released based on the data collected by NASA’s Parker Solar Probe (PSP). One of the new announcements shows the complexity of solar wind. On Earth it is seen as a constant flow of plasma, but the PSP has shown a more complex and active system. The PSP’s FIELDS instrument has found sudden reversals in the magnetic field and incredibly fast jets of material occurring much closer to the Sun. Understanding this is key to understanding how the solar wind is moving away from the Sun and permeates the Solar System. “The complexity was mind-blowing when we first started looking at the data,” says Stuart Bale of the University of California, Berkeley, lead for the PSP’s FIELDS instrument suite.