The Thinking Man Project

Tembea- Kenya

Photo by Shaun  Mousley (@Shaunmousley)

Automotive Photography - Zach Brehl (@Zachbrehl) Vintage Mercedes Benz, Barn Find.

Automotive Photography - Zach Brehl (@Zachbrehl) Vintage Mercedes Benz, Barn Find.

How exactly the solar wind plasma is heated is a hot topic in space physics, because it is hotter than expected for an expanding gas and almost no collisions are present. Scientists have suggested that the cause of this heating may be hidden in the turbulent character of the solar wind plasma.

Advanced supercomputer simulations are helping to understand these complex motions: the image shown here is from one such simulation. It represents the distribution of the current density in the turbulent solar wind plasma, where localised filaments and vortices have appeared as a consequence of the turbulent energy cascade. The blue and yellow colours show the most intense currents (blue for negative and yellow for positive values). (Source ESA.int)