June 21 is the longest day of the year, which also marks the beginning of the summer season in the northern hemisphere. This phenomenon is also known as the summer solstice. Scientists are developing a number of research projects to understand how solar phenomena affect human activity on Earth:
The longest day of the year, or summer solstice occurs when the sun is over the Crab Tropic. This, scientists explain, does not happen because the Earth is closer to the Sun, but because thanks to the positioning of the Earth at an angle of 23.4 degrees to the Sun, the northern hemisphere benefits from longer hours of light.
" When the Earth revolves around the Sun, it stands on its side, not on the vertical axis. Depending on what month it is, some parts of the globe are far from the Sun, so they are not as bright as other parts. This phenomenon creates the seasons of the year, " explains Alex Young, a NASA scientist.
Thousands of people will gather on June 21 at the historic Stonehenge monument in England in a millennial pagan tradition celebrating the arrival of the warm season.
Scientists explain that this period offers a very good opportunity to study solar phenomena, which play a direct impact on many human activities on Earth.
" All this activity has a variety of effects on us. For example, phenomena such as solar winds, radiation from the sun's magnetic field. Sometimes there are massive releases of solar matter, which disturb the magnetic field, interfere with the activity of electronic devices. Explosions "All of these space-time phenomena have an impact on our entire solar system ," says Young.
Meanwhile, scientists have organized a number of missions to better understand the star activity of our solar system.
" Depending on the light waves, we see different phenomena of the sun. We see explosions and other powerful solar activities. With these studies we get a more complete picture of solar activity. We are developing several space missions that study the sun from Earth's orbit. "Meanwhile, the Parker Solar Probe, which is entering the solar atmosphere, offers us a closer and unique look at solar activity. All this is being done in collaboration with the European Space Agency . "
The joint mission aims to closely study the polar regions of the Sun and observe their magnetic activity for the first time. If the mission is completed successfully, the Orbital Probe will capture images of the Sun's poles for the first time, as well as study the hemisphere and solar winds.
