Stars generate enormous magnetic fields because they are electrically charged and due to the complexity of their internal processes, it is not easy to locate something as basic as the north and south poles of it. The poles are those areas through which the axis on which these huge spheres of plasma and crackling gases “enters” and “leaves” rotates. Now, an investigation carried out by the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (Spain) has revealed that just as it happens on Earth -and not as we thought-, the north pole of the Sun does not coincide with its geographical pole .
“Until now it was believed that the Sun was a common star with a peculiarity: that its magnetic and geographical axes were aligned, (this means that the poles coincide), while in the rest of the stars that resemble the Sun already are I knew that this is not the case. But now, we have found out that the Sun is like the rest of the stars ” , explains María Jesús Martínez, co-author of the study.
How then is the Sun’s magnetic field generated? Until now we thought that it was due to the rotational movement of the star. With this new discovery, this theory is obsolete and a new explanation will have to be sought.
The finding, thanks to the analysis of the data received by the SDO ( Solar Dynamics Observatory ) satellite, not only increases our information about our star, but by having located the position of both magnetic poles , we will be able to better understand in which direction the direction will turn. powerful solar wind or even the evolution of coronal mass ejections.
Among the conclusions of the work, the researchers have highlighted that the Sun reverses the polarity of its magnetic field every 22 years and that it has minimums and maximums of magnetic activity every 11 years.
The study has been published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society .
