Gamma Ray Detection Marks Highest Energy Light From the Sun 34
An anonymous reader quotes a report from New Atlas: Scientists have discovered that the Sun produces higher energy light than was thought possible. An unusual type of telescope detected gamma rays with energies of over 1 tera electron volt (TeV), at least five times more energetic than previously known. The Sun emits light spanning a wide range of energies, from infrared through visible light and up to ultraviolet. It was previously predicted that the Sun could produce gamma rays -- electromagnetic radiation with the highest energy -- through interactions with cosmic rays from distant sources, but these would rarely reach Earth to be detectable. A few decades later, these gamma rays were eventually detected by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope in 2011. With more and more observations over the years since, Fermi found that the Sun was producing around seven times more gamma rays than had been predicted. Their energies were detected at up to 200 giga electron volts (GeV), which is the upper limit that Fermi can pick up.
So for the new study, scientists used a different instrument that's sensitive beyond that limit. The instrument in question is called the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory (HAWC), and it works in a way unlike your everyday telescope. It's made up of a series of 300 big tanks filled with 200 tons of water each. When gamma rays hit molecules in the Earth's atmosphere, they create a cascade of lower energy particles, and these can interact with the water molecules in those big tanks. Sensitive instruments keep watch for these interactions, and scientists can work backwards to calculate the energy of the original gamma ray. Using HAWC data gathered between 2015 and 2021, the researchers discovered that the Sun was producing gamma rays with energies well beyond that which Fermi detected. They were reaching energies on the scale of TeV, with some spiking to almost 10 TeV. Exactly how the Sun produces them remains a mystery, the team says, but further research will investigate how their energy gets so high and what role the Sun's magnetic field might play. The research was published in the journal Physical Review Letters.
So for the new study, scientists used a different instrument that's sensitive beyond that limit. The instrument in question is called the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory (HAWC), and it works in a way unlike your everyday telescope. It's made up of a series of 300 big tanks filled with 200 tons of water each. When gamma rays hit molecules in the Earth's atmosphere, they create a cascade of lower energy particles, and these can interact with the water molecules in those big tanks. Sensitive instruments keep watch for these interactions, and scientists can work backwards to calculate the energy of the original gamma ray. Using HAWC data gathered between 2015 and 2021, the researchers discovered that the Sun was producing gamma rays with energies well beyond that which Fermi detected. They were reaching energies on the scale of TeV, with some spiking to almost 10 TeV. Exactly how the Sun produces them remains a mystery, the team says, but further research will investigate how their energy gets so high and what role the Sun's magnetic field might play. The research was published in the journal Physical Review Letters.
Lucky. For us (Score:2, Funny)
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This new radiation from the sun is obviously caused by CO2 leaking from the Earth.
We should all stop driving cars and become vegans to prevent any more of it from being emitted.
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3/4 of 4/5ths of sweet fuck all (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re: 3/4 of 4/5ths of sweet fuck all (Score:2)
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Why? After you die... (Score:2)
...you can ask to see the source code!
Is Electric Universe theory looking better yet? (Score:2)
Or are the orthodoxists still in denial mode?
Slashdot comments (Score:5, Insightful)
Wow.
Mockery of global warming, mockery of astronomy, while promoting electric universe.
4chan would be proud.
Re:Slashdot comments (Score:4, Interesting)
This is the natural consequence of "The Science" gaslighting people for decades in search of scare funding.
Trust goes to zero and everybody is a suspect - which means reputation is destroyed.
It was hard enough being nerdy in the 80's when people merely looked down on scientists for being beta. I personally avoided that by being tall and athletic but I saw it all around me and it steered many moral people away from science.
Now we learn that FDA/CDC/USDA were colluding with Big Sugar and Big Tobacco the whole time and creating diabetic and cancer epidemics.
Fast-forward to 2020 and they're coming for the kids with no science behind them. The hearings in Scotland and Austrailia this week were both appropriately brutal.
It's no wonder that low-information people react poorly - they don't know much but they know they're being lied to.
Every civilizational collapse begins with everybody lying about everything. Only a stalwart commitment to truth and free inquiry can sustain a stable society.
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The lone reply to my post is a bunch of vague accusations about "The Science" and various scientific institutions. "They're coming for the kids".
Modded to 5.
Fuck Slashdot.
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That's quite a claim.
Kind of curious how you know it was everybody lying about everything that brought down civilizations like the Indus Valley (commonly attributed to drought), Easter Island (commonly attributed to resource overuse), or lowland classical Mayan (attributed to disease, invasion, and/or prolonged drought) or Aztec (generally agreed that invasions were the cause of the collapse).
If you would perhaps want a more co
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I'm not the one practising stupidity like it's the new sport. I'm also not hiding....
Re: Nothing new under or from.. (Score:2)
Why dont you ask any astronomer involved if this has anything to do with climate change? I will ask chat GPT if gamma rays cause warming:
Chat GPT: Gamma rays are a form of electromagnetic radiation, but they are not typically associated with the heat energy that affects Earth's climate. Most of the gamma rays from the Sun are absorbed by the Earth's atmosphere, specifically in the upper layers.
The main components of sunlight that influence Earth's temperature are visible light and infrared radiation, not ga
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Why dont you ask any astronomer involved if this has anything to do with climate change?
This 'news' is posted in many places. All of it has the same slant. That this is somehow new solar behaviour and not just some nerds acquiring a new toy.
If you want ANYONE to take climate change, or ANY of your other bullshit seriously, then STOP misleading people.
Re: Nothing new under or from.. (Score:2)
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Don't accuse people of spreading bullshit or assign ownership of bullshit to them. We're ALL totally invested in bullshit of one stripe or other. It belongs to all of us. I'd hate for you to attribute some of MY bullshit to some other person or organisation. My bullshit is yours and yours is ours. When the crops all fail, we can spread any superfluous bullshit to the fields. When the waters rise, bricks of bullshit can stop the tides. Peak Bullshit will never eventuate. Inevitably the universe will fill with bullshit as it inexorably craps itself towards its end. Bullshit everywhere. Unending. I'm tired.
Dude, that's deep. I feel like there's a potential story buried in this new philosophical stance. It's not entropy that the universe is headed towards. It's not an inevitable heat-death. It's bullshit overload, driven by species too stupid to get out of their own way. Our true god, manifested for eternity, drowning out all hope. Just as we deserve. Perfection.
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The media acting like a bunch of chicken littles isn't cause to denounce all of science. The media LOVES predicting gloom and doom and acting like every scientific advance is some giant red flag about whatever the biggest, scariest thing they can think of to attach it to is. People not bright enough to separate science from the reporting of science blame all of science for it, while people with a few extra brain cells after they cover the involuntary stuff like breathing and blinking realize that you have t
Re: Nothing new under or from.. (Score:2)
So do we just need a new physics that predicted this?
Gentleness (Score:2)
Gamma Rays (Score:2)
Fermi found that the Sun was producing around seven times more gamma rays than had been predicted.
Hulk SMASH!
Global Warming (Score:2)
Didn't know my SUV cause this flareup from Sun.
Cosmic Rays (Score:2)
It always made more sense that I needed ECC to protect against the Sun than against Zeta Reticuli.
Space is big.
now we know... (Score:2)
Does this mean that there is more entropy coming from the sun to earth than we had previously thought ?
How can we make use of this new information, can solar cells on satellites be optimized further maybe ?
What SPF do I need? (Score:2)
I really should take this info and try to market and sell Gamma Ray Blocker sunblock. Seems like the current state of science education in the US would allow me to make a pretty penny on people's FUD around this subject.
Of course with the caveat, "These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration"
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