The solar wind’s secret hammerheads and what they tell us about heat in space

The proton sharks showed up on a Friday. In a routine data calibration meeting for NASA’s Parker Solar Probe in 2020, a small group of scientists were scrolling through visualizations of their data showing solar winds. Suddenly, a weird shape flashed on the screen: Instead of the usual rounded blob of solar-wind protons, this distribution had a long, flattened, head-like structure jutting out to one side.

المصدر: Phys.org