Chapter 978: Solar flares, solar storms, and all your efforts!
At present, the cooperation between Qin Ke and the European Southern Observatory is only verbal. The two sides need to conduct face-to-face communication to finalize comprehensive and in-depth cooperation matters before real cooperation can begin.
However, NASA is different. Due to the urgent need for cooperation in the American scientific research community, NASA has already negotiated and directly signed an agreement with Qin Ke at the "Climatology Community Response to Extreme Climate Disasters Exchange Seminar" held at the University of Miami on November 15.
Comprehensive Cooperation Agreement for Astrophysics.
Since the 18th of last month, NASA has shared with Qin Ke’s team all historical information and data on the exploration of planets in the solar system (including the sun), universe structure and environment, etc., and its team of scientists has begun to follow Qin Ke’s team
Instructions, analysis and monitoring of abnormal solar activities.
The sun is the most important external energy source for the planet where humans live. It can even be called the "source of life." Without the sun's heat and light energy to drive seasonal and climate changes on the planet and promote photosynthesis of plants,
Life on this planet will no longer be able to continue. Therefore, NASA has been conducting research on the sun.
Although NASA is slightly inferior to the European Southern Observatory in this regard because it focuses on too many studies at the same time, the data and monitoring data accumulated over a long period of time are still very large.
This time, NASA has specially assembled more than 300 American astrophysicists and experts to monitor and analyze the abnormal activities of the sun, and contacted the LIGO Laser Interference Gravitational Wave Observatory, which is famous for detecting gravitational waves, to provide technical personnel and equipment assistance.
, and it took more than half a month to achieve preliminary results.
This email now is the preliminary analysis report.
"Dear Academician Qin, first of all, I would like to congratulate you once again on winning the second Nobel Prize in Physics medal. We know that you should be at the Nobel Prize in Physics award ceremony at this moment, and we didn't want to disturb you. But there is an exception.
The problem is quite serious and we think it is necessary to make a detailed report to you immediately. We hope that you will check this email in your free time and it will not affect your mood to receive the award."
"Last month you arranged for us to conduct an analysis and monitoring research mission on solar anomalies. At present, we have only completed the analysis of the flare phenomenon, but the problems found are alarming, so we decided to send this immature report to
For your review, please see the attachment for details of the report. Yours sincerely, Reza Foklin."
Reza Foklin is a senior professor of astrophysics at MIT and is very famous in the American physics community. He is currently the leader of NASA's newly established "Solar Research Team". He is basically the one who contacts Qin Ke.
Come take responsibility.
Qin Ke had met him and knew that he was a very stable old professor. If he could take him so seriously, then this report must be extremely important.
Qin Ke glanced at the award ceremony that was still going on. It happened to be during the group photo period. After thinking about it, he directly clicked on the report in the attachment. Then he concentrated on reading at the speed of ten lines at a glance, and it only took about 50 seconds.
I have finished reading this nearly 30-page report.
Then he put away his phone and looked at the award ceremony on the stage with a smile on his face. It looked like he was just checking important information in a hurry. It didn't give people the feeling of being staring at his phone at such a solemn moment.
Respect feelings.
However, Qin Ke's brain was already spinning at full speed, digesting the contents of this report.
As we all know, the sun is only a medium-sized star in the entire galaxy, but the mass of the sun still occupies an absolutely dominant position in the entire solar system.
Most of its components are hydrogen, and the rest are helium and other gases and metals.
The reason why the sun continuously emits light and heat energy is because its interior continues to convert hydrogen atoms into helium atoms through nuclear fusion. The huge energy is the product of this nuclear fusion process.
Solar flares are an important manifestation of solar nuclear fusion activity.
On the surface, "flare" refers to a sudden brightening phenomenon in the solar chromosphere, but its essence is a sudden and large-scale energy release process in local areas of the sun's surface, which will lead to an instantaneous energy surge in local areas of the atmosphere and sudden changes in energy.
The phenomenon of brightening and emitting various electromagnetic radiation outwards, lasting from a few minutes to a few hours.
The fundamental reason is that the nuclear fusion inside the sun fills the solar atmosphere with a magnetic field. The magnetic field structure is constantly changing, becoming more and more complex, and will store more magnetic energy. When there is too much magnetic energy stored in the magnetic field, the sun will
The phenomenon of large-scale explosion of electromagnetic radiation is called a "flare".
If we look at it from an observational point of view, we can find a sudden increase in particle radiation, and the wavelength of the radiated light includes gamma rays and X-rays shorter than 1 angstrom, and even radio bands with wavelengths of several kilometers. It can be said that the
Across the entire electromagnetic spectrum.
The particle flow it emits is also extremely complex, ranging from 10^3 electron volts to 10^9 electron volts.
Generally speaking, most flares occur above sunspot groups. A normally developing sunspot group will produce a flare in almost a few hours, but there are very few flares that really have a strong impact on blue stars.
This report shows that in the past thirty years, the number of flares has increased exponentially, from an average of once every six hours thirty years ago to an average of once every 30 minutes this year! And in August this year
At the end of the month, an unprecedented huge flare broke out and formed a large-scale "solar storm", instantly throwing a terrifying amount of electromagnetic waves, high-energy particles, and coronal matter towards the blue star.
Shortly after the huge flare broke out, a weather satellite from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) photographed a spectacle similar to a mushroom cloud appearing in the North Pole.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! And this is also a turning point for the Northern Hemisphere to enter the "Little Ice Age" this year.
Qin Ke frowned slightly.
No wonder NASA's Reza Foklin team is so nervous. Judging from this preliminary report, the abnormal activity of solar flares is the culprit of the "Little Ice Age" disaster!
Qin Ke has actually been aware of the anomalies in solar flares and sunspots for a long time. The "National Extreme Abnormal Weather Causes Analysis and Future Deduction" research group of the Fluid Mechanics Laboratory has also studied the abnormal activities of the sun and discovered it in the middle of the year.
Last year, more than 1,000 sunspots appeared on the sun's surface, reaching a peak in the past 100 years.
If this phenomenon continues to worsen, not only the amount of solar radiation received by the planet will fluctuate greatly, but most importantly, the magnetic field of the entire planet and the magnetosphere of the atmosphere will be seriously affected, further exacerbating the current problem.
The unstable global climate makes the degree of variability more serious.
But the anomalies of sunspots and flares are, in the final analysis, anomalies of the sun itself. What is wrong with the sun?
If we follow the current theory, the sun maintains its life by continuously burning hydrogen atoms. However, the sun is still in its prime and should be in a relatively healthy state. It will not begin to enter its middle and old age until 50 million years later.
It will take hundreds of millions of years for the sun to exhaust most of its hydrogen, transform into a red giant, and swallow up Mercury and Venus. Of course, the planet will also be truly destroyed by then.
Unless it can be continuously pushed to move outward and maintain a reasonable distance from the sun - Qin Ke is not worried about what will happen in 5 billion years. His main concern is the current problem of the sun.
Since the sun is a star and a stable star, its stellar evolution (life process) will be very long, and the unit is "billion years". This also means that it itself is very "constant" unless there is enough influence.
To the existence of its "same level" or even "higher level".
What is certain at present is that such existence does not appear in the solar system, otherwise the solar system would have been in chaos long ago.
Is the sun "sick"? No, even if it is not "sick", just a small "sneeze" due to various coincidences is enough to affect the planet where humans live.
There is another important question before Qin Ke.
Although it is basically certain that the solar variability is closely related to the current global climate variability, is the solar variability the source of global climate variability? Are there other important factors?
Qin Ke thought for more than ten minutes, but even with a "god-level" thinking ability, he could not make any effective judgment when there was insufficient information.
At this time, the award ceremony was over. Qin Ke excused himself to go to the bathroom and used lip language in the bathroom to instruct Shimmer to help reply to the email from NASA. He first comforted Professor Reza Foklin so that he would not have to
Too anxious, and then pointed out some imperfect data analysis issues in this report, and pointed out the next research direction.
Putting away her phone and returning to her seat, Ning Qingyun asked quietly: "What's wrong? You seem a little absent-minded?"
Qin Ke didn't want this to affect Ning Qingyun's mood, so he smiled and said: "I'm just a little emotional, and I'm thinking about whether we will win the Nobel Prize for the fourth or fifth time in the future? After all, I believe
We will have more research results with greater impact in the future.”
Ning Qingyun really thought about it seriously: "It shouldn't be possible, right? There are only so many places for the Nobel Prize every year, and no matter what, it is impossible to award it to the same winner repeatedly."
Qin Ke couldn't help laughing. His wife's character of taking everything so seriously was so funny and cute.
In two or three years, it is estimated that a top international award such as the "Qin Kening Qingjun Prize" will come out. If it is operated properly, its influence may be greater than that of the Nobel Prize. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is afraid that it will be embarrassed to "climb" again.
They awarded the Nobel Prize.
…
After the award ceremony, Qin Ke and Ning Qingyun stood on the stage together holding their daughter and son, and Qin Xiaoke helped take a group photo.
If you include the photo of Ning Qingyun standing on the podium with Qin Ke when she was just pregnant with the baby, this is the second time their family of four has taken a group photo together at the Stockholm Concert Hall.
Of course, Qin Ke also called his father, mother, grandfather, and sister, and the accompanying staff took some family photos. Later, he also added Edward Witten and his wife, as well as Professor Andrew Wiles and others who came to join in the fun.
The award ceremony was followed by a customary dinner and interviews with reporters. Qin Ke also made it clear during the interview that he was willing to work hand in hand with the European scientific community, provide technical assistance, and jointly promote the progress of human scientific and technological civilization, among other polite remarks.
At this point, the "regular program" of the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony has come to an end.
The day after the award ceremony and dinner, Qin Ke and Ning Qingyun had no time to slowly enjoy the joy of the award. They soon started non-stop discussions with the European Meteorological Center, the European Southern Observatory, and the European scientific community.
kind of meeting, consultation.
The European scientific community has not tried every means to award awards to Qin Ke and Ning Qingyun in order to close their relationship like the United States.
It's not that Qin Ke's "olive branch of cooperation" proactively thrown out at the press conference has improved the attitude of the European scientific community, but that in the face of three Nobel Prizes and two Fields Medals, the European scientific community has nothing to offer.
We have a great prize, so instead of just adding to the jokes, it is better to use the most sincere attitude of cooperation to bring the relationship closer.
Coupled with the European Meteorological Center's connection, Qin Ke and Ning Qingyun have unparalleled academic reputation and good reputation and connections. The two sides hit it off immediately, and this meeting was very successful.
The European Southern Observatory signed a comprehensive scientific research cooperation agreement with Qin Ke on the day of the meeting, and expressed its willingness to "follow Academician Qin's footsteps and follow Academician Qin's guidance." Qin Ke asked them to do their best to carry out abnormal solar activities, and to
Missions to monitor other stars closest to the solar system - such as Proxima Centauri, which is only 4.25 light-years away - and the Centauri a triple star system also stated that they will be fully implemented.
Many well-known scientific research institutions in the European scientific community, such as the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science, the Helmholtz Association, the Fraunhofer Society, the Leibniz Society, etc., have also reached strategic agreements with Qin Ke.
cooperation agreement.
In particular, the Munich Institute of Astrophysics and the Heidelberg Institute of Astronomy of the Max Planck Society also sent representatives to sign a deeper technical mutual assistance agreement with Qin Ke.
On December 20, when Qin Ken, Ning Qingyun and her family flew back to Xia Kingdom from their trip to Europe, it could be said that they returned with a full load - the full load here refers to a large number of scientific research cooperation agreements. It can be said that Qin Ke's trip to Europe was completely completed.
The goal was achieved.
At this point, the elite forces in the scientific research community, with the United States and Europe as the core, have basically been united by Qin Ke to jointly fight against the global climate change that is likely to threaten the survival of mankind in the future.
Three days later, after another long-distance flight and detours, Qin Ke and his party finally arrived safely in Xia Kingdom.
At this time, the impact of the "Little Ice Age" was still at its most serious, and heavy snow began to fall in the southernmost cities, with the snow accumulation reaching 10CM, breaking the historical record.
Qin Ke and his family took a special train back to Yuanzhou first, resting for two or three days to relieve the fatigue of the journey, and also to celebrate his 25th birthday with his family.
After the simple birthday party, Qin Kecai, Ning Qingyun, Qin Xiaoke and the two babies returned to the capital and plunged into work.
Chapter completed!