NASA’s Parker Solar Probe spots powerful magnetic explosion aimed at the sun’s surface

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NASA’s Parker Solar Probe captured unprecedented data of a powerful plasma explosion moving toward the sun’s surface, revealing protons with energy levels 1,000 times higher than expected. The event, caused by magnetic reconnection where the sun’s magnetic fields break and reconnect, accelerates charged particles and fuels the solar wind. Understanding this process is crucial for predicting space weather, which can disrupt satellites, GPS, power grids, and even agriculture on Earth. As the first spacecraft to enter the sun’s corona, the probe provides detailed measurements that improve space weather models. These insights come amid an active solar cycle, with the probe continuing its close flybys and contributing to hundreds of scientific studies since its launch.