NASA's Parker Solar Probe Reveals Origin of Fast Solar Wind

NASA's Parker Solar Probe has captured information about the solar wind that flows from the sun's coronal holes towards Earth, answering questions scientists have asked for six decades. The information gathered will help predict "solar storms," which create "beautiful auroras on Earth" but also "wreak havoc with satellites and the electrical grid." The probe flew closer than about 13 million miles to the sun to study these winds. The wind is made during a process called magnetic reconnection and by the time it travels the 93 million miles to Earth, "it has evolved into a homogeneous, turbulent flow of roiling magnetic fields intertwined with charged particles that interact with Earth's own magnetic field and dump electrical energy into the upper atmosphere."