What Is the Sun’s Magnetic Field and Why Is It Important?

Key Takeaways on the Sun’s Magnetic Field

• The Sun’s magnetic field impacts the movement of plasma on the sun’s surface, but it does not actually impact the amount of heat the sun emits.
• Solar flares, for example, are huge explosions that occur when the Sun’s magnetic fields get tied up in one another. The largest of them, called X-class flares, can lead to global radio blackouts.
• The magnetic field of the Sun is constantly moving and changing and, in fact, is never the same.

The Sun is a highly magnetic star with lines of magnetic energy churning in all different directions. And unlike the Earth, which is surrounded by a magnetic field that is much simpler in that it can move north and south, the Sun’s magnetic fields are complicated, according to NASA, shooting this way and that and causing everything from sunspots to solar storms to solar flares.

What Is the Sun’s Magnetic Field?

The Sun is a magnetic star with many magnetic fields. Its magnetism is generated because of very hot plasma.

It isn’t solid, it’s made of gas and hot plasma, which is part of the reason that it and gaseous planets, are so magnetic. It’s also why Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are so magnetized, though less so than the Sun and their fields arise from conductive fluids inside.

When these charged particles create motion, they also create a magnetic field. Some of its magnetism is shooting out from the Sun and some of it loops back into the star.

“Ions and electrons are moving around and in doing so they create a magnetic field,” says Holly Gilbert, interim deputy director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Read More: A Growing Weak Spot in Earth’s Magnetic Field May Cause More Satellites to Short Circuit

How the Sun’s Magnetic Fields Create Solar Flares

The Sun’s magnetic field does impact the movement of plasma on the Sun’s surface, but it does not actually impact the amount of heat the sun emits. Still, the Sun’s magnetism shapes the solar activity within the solar system in several ways.

Magnetism is so fundamental to the Sun, that it doesn’t just impact the Sun; it impacts the solar system in so many ways. Solar flares, for example, are huge explosions that occur when the Sun’s magnetic fields get tied up in one another, according to the ESA. The largest of them, called X-class flares, can lead to global radio blackouts. Additionally, sunspots are dark spots on the Sun’s surface, according to NASA.

“Sunspots are really just a bundle of very intense magnetic fields sticking out from the surface of the Sun,” says Gilbert.

And while Sunspots appear very dark, they are not void of light. If you took a Sunspot away from the Sun, it would be about as bright as a full moon, she adds.

The magnetic field of the Sun is constantly moving and changing and, in fact, is never the same. Right now, things are active because every 11 years the Sun becomes so entangled with magnetism that it’s at what’s called “solar maximum.” Scientists don’t know why it happens every 11 years, but they know that it does.

“It’s when we see the most sunspots and the most solar storms all because of the complexity of the magnetic field,” says Gilbert.

But at the other end of the spectrum is the “solar minimum,” when the magnetic fields aren’t as wrapped up and become simpler.

The Magnetic Field Impact

The auroras on Earth are also caused by solar wind particles that are influenced by the Sun’s magnetism because solar particles interact with the Earth’s magnetic field to cause collisions with gases like oxygen and nitrogen that appear as brightly colored lights, according to the NOAA. These cause the northern and southern lights.

Jupiter and Saturn have similar auroras for the same reasons. In 2016, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured stunning pictures of the aurora on Jupiter with the northern pole lit up in blues and greens, after they were color-coded.

In the end, it’s all about this solar dynamo, a constant churning inside the Sun. When they get all tangled up, there’s a lot of magnetism that’s stored, which can result in a burst of solar energy, says Gilbert.

Read More: Terrestrial Particles Travel to the Moon by Hitchhiking Along Earth’s Magnetic Field Lines

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