The so-called "chirping" waves, some of the strongest natural electromagnetic emissions in space, have been associated with hazardous radiation that impacts both humans and satellites. An international team of astronomers has now detected strange "chirping" signals coming from a region of space no one was expecting, and it leaves new questions over their origin.
These chorus waves are short pulses of electromagnetic radiation. They originate from high above Earth's surface and, as a sound wave, are comparable to birds chirping. Prior to the observation, these waves had only been detected as far away as 51,000 kilometers (31,690 miles) from Earth, where Earth's magnetic field acts like a magnet with two well-defined opposites. The scientists believed that the field was critical in the creation of plasma instabilities that produced the waves.
The newest research that was published in the journal Nature, however, has detected the same type of radiation burst at a distance much farther from Earth, which is 165,000 kilometers or 102,526 miles. At that distance, Earth's magnetic field is far more distorted. The discovery does imply that chorus waves may not be as closely tied to the dipolar magnetic field expected, as theories had held for their production.
This discovery has opened new avenues for the understanding of complex behavior of space radiation and its effects on our dear planet.
Other planets have chorus waves too, including Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, so these discoveries tell us more about the wider cosmos and how magnetic fields are shaped around planets.
"Our observations may help to resolve long-standing controversies regarding chorus emissions and in gaining an understanding of the energy transport observed in space and astrophysical environments," write the researchers.
