00:00¿Te has preguntado cómo el viento solar impacta la Tierra?
00:03Nicky Fox, de la NASA, explica cómo estas partículas cargadas interactúan con la magnetosfera
00:09y por qué es vital proteger a los astronautas y equipos espaciales.
00:14También revela cómo lo que ocurre en el Sol afecta directamente a nuestro planeta,
00:19haciendo que su estudio sea esencial para el futuro de la exploración y nuestra vida diaria.
00:30Solar Wind
00:30Presented by Science at NASA
00:37The wind speed of a devastating Category 5 hurricane can top over 150 miles per hour, or 241 kilometers per hour.
00:49Now, imagine another kind of wind with an average speed of 0.87 million miles per hour, or 1.4 million kilometers per hour.
00:58Welcome to the wind that begins in our sun and doesn't stop until after it reaches the edge of the heliosphere, the solar wind.
01:07The corona is the sun's inner atmosphere, the brightness that can be seen surrounding an eclipse sun,
01:14and home to the continually expanding solar wind.
01:18Right now, the Parker Solar Probe, a NASA mission launched in 2018,
01:23is orbiting the sun and will get as close as 3.83 million miles, or 6.16 million kilometers, of the sun's surface.
01:31Parker is gathering new data about the solar particles and magnetic fields that comprise the solar wind.
01:38More specifically, two of its main goals are to examine the energy that heats the corona and speeds up the solar wind,
01:45and determine the structure of the wind's magnetic fields.
01:48While many theories describe the solar wind's history, this is what we do know.
01:55The solar wind impacting Earth's magnetosphere is responsible for triggering those majestic auroras,
02:01typically seen at locations close to our north and south poles.
02:05In some cases, it can also set off space weather storms that disrupt everything from our satellites in space,
02:11to ship communications on our oceans, to power grids on land.
02:14Nikki Foxx is the Division Director for Heliophysics at NASA Headquarters.
02:20She explains in more detail how the solar wind disrupts our magnetosphere.
02:25As the wind flows toward Earth, it carries with it the sun's magnetic field.
02:30It moves very fast, then smacks right into Earth's magnetic field.
02:34The blow causes a shock to our magnetic protection, which can result in turbulence.
02:40NASA also has another reason to study the solar wind and its properties.
02:45The solar wind is part of a larger space weather system that can affect astronauts and technology.
02:51As Foxx notes,
02:53we not only have to ensure our astronauts are protected from the harmful effects of radiation,
02:57we have to protect our equipment, too.
03:00So we've already found aluminum to be a good shield to protect our crafts from many energetic particles.
03:05But there are also faster particles that travel at 80% of the speed of light, which can cause havoc with parts of a spacecraft.
03:14They can smash into and damage solar panels, disrupt electronics, or affect electric currents that flow along power grids.
03:21So we're currently conducting tests with small pieces of technology to study how well they can survive in intense radiation areas.
03:28Knowing more about the effects of the solar wind is not only important to those of us who live on Earth.
03:35It will be critical to know how to mitigate its effects once our astronauts travel back to the Moon and beyond for extended periods of time.
03:41Foxx concludes,
03:43My feeling is, if the sun sneezes, Earth catches a cold.
03:48Because we always feel the impact of what happens on the sun, thanks to the solar wind.
03:53Get blown away by the science behind the solar wind at science.nasa.gov.
