Voice off Screen: Scientists around the
world have their eyes turned to the sun this week as it reveals as massive active
region that could affect us here on Earth. And here joining us from NASAs Goddard
Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, Maryland is Dr. Holly Gilbert. Thank you
for joining us. Dr.Gilbert: Thank you for having me. Voice off Screen: So what is a
sunspot and what
makes this one so special. Dr. Gilbert: Sunspots are these dark regions on the sun
where magnetic fields are bundled together and it creates such a strong magnetic
field that light and heat cannot cross it, so it appears
dark relative to the surrounding area. And the particular sunspot region
that we're interested, right now is the largest that we've seen
in twenty-four years.
Voice off Screen: Fascinating, so
why do we want to learn more from this sunspot? Dr. Gilbert: Sunspots are regions where
solar storms originate, so basically where space weather originates. It's
important to study these things because they have flares that are associated with them
and these bigger storms called coronal mass ejections. So by
studying the sunspot region itself, and how it evolves we will understand
more about how solar flares are created and when they will
impact the Earth.
Voice off Screen: So will this affect us here on Earth ?
Dr. Gilbert: We don't know yet. It's possible that it will in the next week cause it's
still going to be on the side of the sun facing us. It maybe associated
with these mass ejections, and if they are directed towards the Earth they can
interact with the Earth's magnetic field and cause problems with our
satellites, our power grids, our technology. We're protected on the surface
from that magnetic field of the Earth and the atmosphere. But our technology is susceptible
to these types of storms.
Voice off Screen: Neat.
So what is NASA doing to
study sunspots? Dr. Gilbert: Well we have our eye on the sun all the time
and so we're watching this particular sunspot along with our partners at NOAA,
we have a mission called the Solar Dynamics Observatory which images the sun
all the time and we also have a fleet of missions that
not only look at the sun, but study what's happening here near
the Eath as well as throughout the solar system. In fact we have a new mission that we're
about to launch next year, that are four identical spacecraft. This is
called MMS and those four spacecraft will be inside the
Earth's magentic field, basically taking measurements of these
processes that create the solar flares on the sun. But these
processes happen near the Earth they also happen on the sun and throughout the universe,
near us in our labratory of the Earth we can understand better
how they happen. Voice off Screen: Great. Where can we go to learn more?
Dr. Gilbert: You can go to are website to find a lot more about our missions and
lots of images nasa.gov/sunearth.
Voice off Screen: Dr. Holly Gilbert thank you so much. Dr. Gilbert: Thank you.