The sun is home to tornadoes that can be as tall as 13 Earths.
Every year, hundreds of graduate students submit their research to NASA in hopes of receiving the prestigious Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST) grant. New Mexico State University’s Aman Priyadarshi Kumar was one of only 108 applicants to receive the grant for his research on solar tornadoes.
Kumar began his research on solar tornadoes in his first year as a Ph.D. student in astronomy, and he wrote the grant during his second semester with his advisor, Juie Shetye.
Like tornadoes on Earth, solar tornadoes are giant spinning columns; however, Kumar explained that is where the similarities end.
“On the sun, the scale is -first of all- much bigger,” Kumar said.
Solar tornadoes can be anywhere between five and 13 Earths tall, or between 39,575 and 102,895 miles. The tallest tornadoes on Earth are 9.5 miles tall.
Unlike Earth tornadoes, which consist of air and sometimes water, solar tornadoes are made of plasma. Plasma is the fourth state of matter where, at extremely high temperatures, atoms lose their electrons; on Earth, it can be observed as lightning.
Little else is known about solar tornadoes, but Kumar believes understanding them will lead to a greater understanding of not only the sun, but all stars.
“There is this long-standing problem in physics,” Kumar said. “It has stopped us from understanding the solar atmosphere, or the atmosphere of any star, completely.”
On Earth, the core is the hottest part of the planet, and as the layers get closer to the surface, they become cooler. It would be assumed the sun should follow the same.
However, this is not the case. Instead, something is making the outermost layers of the sun hotter than its middle layers.
“So, there must be some kind of energy transport that is happening from the surface of the sun to the upper atmosphere of the sun,” Kumar said. “It is possible that these solar tornadoes are responsible for this energy transport. If we are able to see what mechanisms are at work here, then that will help us understand our own sun, and stars in general, much, much better.”
Kumar explained that FINESST was one of his only opportunities to pursue his research as an international student.
Born in India, Kumar said he was always driven by his curiosity and always asking his parents questions. The older he got, the more complex his questions became, and the less his parents were able to answer.
“I started looking for them, and, eventually, got to questions that were not answerable by people in general,” Kumar said. “Scientists couldn’t answer these questions. Then I was like, ‘I would like to answer those questions.’ The way to do that was to become a scientist.”
His search took him to the University of Colorado Boulder, for his undergraduate studies in astronomy and physics, then to NMSU.
Grants are limited for international students, with most having U.S. citizenship as a requirement to apply. Kumar said the FINESST grant is one of the few available to international student researchers.
“When I was applying for [FINESST], my hopes were low,” Kumar said. “I was like, ‘This is already very rare to get.’ It’s rarer in heliophysics [sun physics]; it’s even rarer to get it as an international student. Getting it, while keeping all of that in mind, as a first year, on my first attempt, was just mind-blowing.”
His research caught NASA’s eye because of the direct impact the sun has on Earth. Kumar said it can be difficult to communicate to the general public the importance of astronomy research. However, the sun affects everyone.
Life on Earth relies on the sun for light, warmth, and energy. On the other hand, the immense power of the sun’s solar winds has the potential to disrupt our communication devices, navigation tools, and power grids.
“Our research has implications towards us, our people living on Earth, our technologies, and just us as a civilization,” Kumar said.
