doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-34336-1
Credibility: 989
#Sun
Scientists have finally managed to identify where the real “engine” that generates the Sun’s powerful magnetic field is located
This essential mechanism, responsible for the cycle of solar activity that lasts about 11 years, is not close to the visible surface, as many previous models imagined, but much deeper, at approximately 200 thousand kilometers deep – a distance equivalent to about 16 times the diameter of the Earth lined up one after the other.
Researchers at the New Jersey Institute of Technology analyzed nearly 30 years of data collected by NASA instruments and ground-based networks.
They used helioseismology, a technique that studies the sound waves produced by the turbulent movement of plasma inside the Sun, as if they were a kind of stellar “echography”.
These waves travel through the interior of the star and undergo small changes in speed depending on material flows and rotation in different layers.
With billions of measurements accumulated over three complete solar cycles, the team mapped movement patterns that form butterfly-shaped rotational bands – exactly the same shape that sunspots make on the surface over time.
The central point of the discovery is a thin and special layer called tachocline, located on the border between the outer convective zone (where hot plasma rises and falls in an agitated way) and the inner radiative zone (more stable).
In this region, the Sun’s rotation speed changes abruptly, creating intense shear forces that twist and amplify the magnetic field, functioning as a true solar dynamo.
Until now, scientists suspected that tachocline played an important role, but direct and clear observational evidence was lacking.
With these new long-term data, it became clear that the magnetic “motor” is born down there.
Rotational flows begin at this depth and take years to reach the surface, which explains why there is a delay between internal changes and the appearance of sunspots, flares and other visible manifestations.
This revelation helps to better understand how the Sun reverses its magnetic polarity every 11 years and how periods of greater or lesser activity arise.
In addition to advancing knowledge about our star, the study improves the prospects for predicting space weather events – such as large coronal mass ejections that can disrupt satellites, electrical grids, communications and navigation systems here on Earth.
Although it still does not allow accurate predictions of future cycles, the discovery reinforces the need to include the entire convective zone, especially the tachocline, in current computational models, which were often limited to the most superficial layers.
The work also paves the way for understanding magnetic cycles in other stars in the galaxy, as the Sun serves as the best nearby laboratory we have for studying these phenomena.
Published in 03/21/2026 01h12
Text adapted by AI (Grok) and translated via Google API in the English version. Images from public image libraries or credits in the caption. Information about DOI, author and institution can be found in the body of the article.
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