Scientists baffled by ‘heartbeat’ detected inside the Sun beating every 20 seconds

The data from the solar flare was captured by a radio telescope called the Expanded Owens Valley Solar Array (EOVSA), which routinely observes the Sun in a wide range of microwave frequencies over 1 to 18 gigahertz (GHz).

The telescope, based in California, US, is sensitive to radio radiation emitted by high-energy electrons in the Sun’s atmosphere that are energised in solar flares.

From EOVSA’s observations of the flare, the team revealed radio bursts featuring a signal pattern repeating every 10-20 seconds, “like a heartbeat”, according to study leading author Yuankun Kou, a PhD student at Nanjing University (NJU).

The team discovered what is known as a strong quasi-periodic pulsation (QPP) signal at the base of the electric current sheet, stretching more than 25,000 kilometres through the eruption’s core flaring region.

Article source: https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1741143/heartbeat-detected-inside-sun-scientists-baffled-discovery-solar-storm-breakthrough