The Sun records a peak of high-energy radiation never seen before

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Scientists at Michigan State University found a record of unprecedented gamma rays emitted by the Sun. Lightning is the highest-energy radiation discovered and, in the universe, comes from catastrophic events such as supernovae and black hole accretion disks.

Gamma rays have the shortest wavelength and highest frequency in the elect Phone Number List romagnetic spectrum. The radiation is so strong that it can release electrons from the atoms and molecules with which it interacts during its passage. Among the sources from which the emission of gamma rays comes is nuclear fusion, the process that occurs for billions of years within stars.

The high-energy radiation released by the nuclear activity of an average star is much less than the explosion of a red giant . Therefore, with regard to the Sun of our system, gamma rays are dispersed into space without presenting risks to life on Earth.

A latest study revealed that the expulsion of that kind of energy from the Sun is much greater than estimated. After monitoring solar radiation data, scientists at Michigan State University detected that there was an abnormal peak for the known scale of the star. Traditional measuring instruments have the capacity to capture up to 200 billion electron volts, but the new record, through an indirect route, estimated a record of one trillion electron volts.

The red giant IC 2220 is in the process of dying.  This is what the Sun will look like in 500 million years.
How will our Sun die? New photo from Gemini South telescope gives us an idea
The Gemini South Ground Telescope visited the Toby Jug Nebula and captured the image of a red giant in the process of destruction.
Since 2008, the Fermi space telescope has been the primary instrument for studying gamma rays in the universe. It is not the only way to record information about radiation. The High-Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory (HAWC) was created in 2015 to expand the range of gamma energy observation.



The HAWC is a unique study center that uses containers of water and light detectors to analyze the optical phenomenon that occurs when a charged particle moves through a dielectric medium (Cherenkov radiation). The observatory is located on the slopes of the Sierra Negra Volcano in Puebla, Mexico.

The HAWC team analyzed Cherenkov radiation for six years, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The information they found exceeded all expectations regarding our Sun.

“After looking at six years of data, this excess of gamma rays appeared. When we first saw it, we thought: We definitely screwed this up. The sun cannot be as bright with these energies,” says Mehr Un Nisa, head of the research.

El HAWC es un observatorio especial que utiliza contenedores de agua para analizar la radiación de alta energía
The HAWC is a special observatory that uses water containers to analyze high-energy radiation (Photo: Mehr Un Nisa)
Michigan scientists clarify that the discovery does not pose a risk to Earth. The Sun still has enigmas within it. The HAWC determined that the star's gamma rays are more powerful than astronomers estimated. It is not clear how they reach so much energy and how they affect the Sun's magnetic fields. The study raises more questions than answers.