Super Solar Storms with Lika Guhathakurta

Summary

StarTalk Radio Podcast Summary
Episode: "Super Solar Storms" with Lika Guhathakurta
Host: Neil deGrasse Tyson | Co-Host: Chuck Nice
Guest: Dr. Lika Guhathakurta, Heliophysicist
Air Date: August 11, 2026

---

Episode Overview

The episode delves into the mysteries and science of the Sun, particularly focusing on solar storms, the heliosphere, and the powerful forces that shape our solar system and affect life on Earth. Dr. Lika Guhathakurta, a leading heliophysicist, joins Neil deGrasse Tyson and Chuck Nice to answer crowd-sourced sun questions, explain breakthroughs in solar research, share personal experiences, and discuss both the risks and the beauty of our volatile star.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Dr. Lika Guhathakurta’s Path to Studying the Sun

• Origin Story: Dr. Guhathakurta shares that she arrived at sun studies “almost by accident,” transitioning from general astrophysics to heliophysics when she realized the Sun, only 8 light minutes away, was the perfect star laboratory (04:57).
• On Heliophysics:

  "Brand new word, about 20 years old... a brand new discipline, a thing unto itself." (04:20 - Lika Guhathakurta)

2. Peering Inside the Sun: Helioseismology

• Helioseismology borrows from terrestrial seismology, using vibrations and sound waves to infer the Sun’s internal structure, even though it’s not solid (06:21).
• The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) images the sun’s surface nearly 24/7, enabling continuous measurement of these vibrations and dynamics (09:07).

3. How the Sun Loses Mass

• The Sun loses mass through two main processes: fusion (converting hydrogen to helium, releasing 4 million tons/sec as energy), and the solar wind (an extra 1–2 million tons/sec blown into space).

  "Altogether, the sun at this present time is losing between 5 and 6 million metric tons every second... until you actually remember the size of the sun." (12:16 - Lika Guhathakurta)

• Over its lifetime, the loss sums to only about 0.03% of its original mass (13:09).
• On gravity and the solar wind: The ‘alphanic surface’ is where particles gain enough energy to escape the Sun’s gravity—an invisible, science-defined boundary (14:08).

4. “Does the Sun Make Noise?”

• Solar interior resonates with millions of pressure waves (sound waves), especially a strong five-minute oscillation.
• If space were not a vacuum, the Sun would sound "like a loud, roaring lawnmower" (20:50 - Lika Guhathakurta).
• The Sun’s surface is akin to a boiling cauldron, with pressure waves arising from convective (boiling) plasma in the convection zone.

5. The Heliopause, Heliosphere, and Our Magnetic “Bubble”

• The heliosphere is the giant bubble carved out by the solar wind, enveloping the entire solar system and shielding us from interstellar cosmic radiation (26:21).
• Its boundary ("heliopause") is not a perfect sphere—Voyager spacecraft confirmed it varies in thickness (28:19).
• The concept of bubbles within bubbles applies: Earth’s magnetosphere sits inside the Sun’s heliosphere, much like a fractal, recurring layer in the cosmos (33:29).

  "You live inside a star’s gigantic magnetic embrace. It keeps you safe. Do not forget that. And thank it." (34:53 - Lika Guhathakurta)

6. The Parker Solar Probe

• Launched in 2018, Parker Solar Probe "is going strong," having completed 28 perihelion passes, some as close as inside 10 solar radii (36:50).
• The probe moves in and out of the Sun’s Alfven zone, capturing never-before-seen data on the solar wind's birth.
• Gravitational "de-assist" from Venus reduces orbital speed, letting the probe spiral closer to the Sun (39:38).

7. Solar Cycles, Sunspots, and Space Weather

• The 11-year solar cycle is marked by turmoil—increased sunspots, solar storms, coronal mass ejections (CMEs).
• Every 22 years, the magnetic polarity of the Sun flips back to its original state (45:05–45:42).
• Space weather's severity relates more to magnetic field strength than to simple polarity; most earthbound effects (like aurora) depend on interactions between incoming particles and Earth’s magnetic configuration (46:23).

8. Aurora: Science and Stories

• The aurora occurs when solar particles hit Earth’s atmosphere, exciting oxygen/nitrogen and producing colored light (51:52).
• Dr. Guhathakurta shares two touching stories tied to auroral displays:
  • The May 2024 “Gannon Storm” named posthumously after a late colleague, representing "nature celebrating her life" (54:41).
  • Her own first experience seeing an aurora in November 2025, which felt deeply personal (56:07).

9. Super Solar Storms: How Dangerous?

• The 1859 Carrington Event (the largest recorded solar storm) would classify as “G5,” the current maximum on the geomagnetic scale (62:26).
• Even minor storms can harm satellites, as shown in February 2022 when Starlink lost dozens of satellites due to unexpected atmospheric drag from a tame CME (61:05).
• Satellite operators can sometimes mitigate by "safe-moding" devices during solar events, further demonstrating the importance of space weather prediction (63:08).

10. The New Era of International Solar Science

• New missions include:
  • NASA’s PUNCH (studying the corona-heliosphere connection)
  • IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) as a “space weather buoy” (65:43)
  • ESA’s Solar Orbiter, Indian Aditya L1, Chinese Kwafu L1, and Japanese solar missions, all targeting unique gaps in solar science (66:50–68:17)
• Most agency data is shared internationally except China's, due to current policy constraints (68:56).

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Sun’s ‘Noise’:

  "It rings like an enormous musical instrument with millions of overlapping pressure waves... If we could hear it, it would sound like a loud, roaring lawnmower." (19:36 & 21:26 - Lika Guhathakurta)

• On Human Perspective:

  "You live inside a star’s gigantic magnetic embrace. It keeps you safe. Do not forget that. And thank it." (34:53 - Lika Guhathakurta)

• On Data Sharing:

  "Sun belongs to no one and sun shines on every flag." (66:50 - Lika Guhathakurta)

• On Modern Space Weather:

  “Space weather... has real consequences. That is going to change, Chuck. Mark my word. Get me back in 10 years if I'm still here and not blended with the corona and I'll prove myself right.” (63:30 - Lika Guhathakurta)

• Personal Aurora Memory:

  "It’s like the sun did a private show for me. I saw an aurora so bright from 6:30pm to 3am..." (55:08 - Lika Guhathakurta)

---

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 04:57 — Lika’s path to sun science and heliophysics explained
• 06:21 — Helioseismology: How we “see” into the Sun
• 12:16 — How the Sun loses mass and solar wind basics
• 19:36 — Does the Sun “make noise”? The answer and analogy
• 26:09 — What is the heliosphere, and why does it matter?
• 36:50 — Parker Solar Probe’s mission, orbits, and discoveries
• 45:05 — Solar cycles, sunspot peaks, and the Sun’s magnetic flip
• 51:52 — Aurora science and personal appreciation
• 54:41 — The Gannon Storm and naming super solar storms
• 61:05 — Satellite losses from solar storms, Carrington insights
• 63:30 — Space weather’s growing impact on daily technology
• 65:43 — Current and future international solar missions
• 66:50 — Data sharing and solar research around the world

---

Episode Tone & Style

• Engaging banter between host, co-host, and guest; Dr. Guhathakurta’s style is both deeply knowledgeable and warmly personal.
• Neil and Chuck provide regular comic relief while drilling into scientific details.
• Personal stories, heartfelt tributes, and analogy-rich explanations keep even complex science accessible.

---

Bottom Line:
This episode delivers an accessible, vivid, and occasionally emotional journey into solar science, demystifying how humanity studies the Sun, the immense power it wields, and how international cooperation is key to predicting and surviving future “super solar storms.” Listeners leave with a renewed sense of awe—and a strong reminder to keep looking up.

Transcript

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Curiosity is fundamental to progress. So why not take what you're curious about and turn it into a master's degree? Whether you want to build on existing expertise or study something entirely new, SNHU offers over 80 graduate programs you can complete online. Learn from instructors with real world experience, connect with people from all over the country and gain knowledge you can use at work and in everyday life. Give in to your curiosity and visit SNHU Edustartalk Hola.

[Chuck Nice]

Si tengo uno reservacion paracalos. What? You heard right. There is a real world scenario where I'm checking into a hotel, except I'm not doing it in my own language. Why? Because I use Rosetta Stone. You know, Rosetta Stone is your all in one language platform. And and they have something super cool right now that I'm enjoying called chat missions. It's practice for real world scenarios like checking into your hotel like you just heard or dealing with your lost luggage. Wouldn't that be a nightmare? Not knowing how to speak the language? Maybe exercising at the gym, even going to a bookstore and finding a new book. Meeting people at a dinner party. Or just as simple as introducing yourself in a way that makes you look like a native speaker. I I first encountered chat missions through my brother who uses it because he tells me every day that he's moving to Spain. The cool thing about it? It's fun, it's immersive and it's interactive. The app has the conversation with you and then listens to you to make sure you're speaking correctly. Maybe you need a more hands on approach. Rosetta Stone has tutoring. That's right. Personalized support and 30 minute online sessions with certified tutors. Can't get any better than that. And Rosetta Stone just came out with their biggest launch in a decade, Rosetta Stone Sapphire. It lets you learn for real because you're learning how to speak the language in the real world. I love it. You know what else I love about Rosetta Stone? I can learn at my own pace, anytime, anywhere. If you want to take your language skills to the next level, don't wait to try Rosetta Stone Sapphire. StarTalk listeners can get 20% off their Rosetta Stone Sapphire subscription. This gets you access to Rosetta stone sapphire in 25 languages. Visit Rosetta stone.com startalk to redeem your 20% off. That's Rosetta stone.com startalk Jazz La Hora

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Amigos so the sun is still at

[Chuck Nice]

it, but what's it really up to? Neil

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Lika Guhathakurta knows. Yes. Coming up on StarTalk. Welcome to StarTalk, your place in the universe where science and pop culture collide. StarTalk begins right now. This is Startalk, the Hildegrass Tyson, your personal astrophysicist. Got Chuck nice with me. Hey, baby.

[Chuck Nice]

That's right, your personal ass

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

trope physicist. Deal with you later on that one. So, Chuck, we have a returning guest.

[Chuck Nice]

Yes. Someone we very much like.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

One of the all time favorites. Yes.

[Chuck Nice]

Of StarTalk favorites.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. We have Lika Guhatakurta. Yes, I even think I pronounced it right. You did it right.

[Chuck Nice]

You did it.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Lika. Welcome back to StarTalk.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Thank you. And it's great to be here and great to have Chuck in the show. What can I say?

[Chuck Nice]

Well, thank you, Lyka.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You're one of the world's experts on the sun and those who are consuming this via video. You may notice that her hair is as bright as the sun.

[Chuck Nice]

Yes, yes. Sun kissed, as they might say.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Sun kissed, perhaps.

[Chuck Nice]

Yes, there it is.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Don't go there. Don't go there.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So you're an astrophysicist and the technical name for your subspecialty, I guess would be heliophysicist. Did we. We got that right?

[Lika Guhathakurta]

You got that right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

All right.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Brand new word, about 20 years old.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, cool. Oh, I did not know that.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Did not know that either.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Brand new discipline word. Perhaps people have used it, but it's

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

a brand new discipline, a thing unto itself. There you go. Except you were interested in the sun long before that. So what attracted you? Just because we like a little bit of bio on people every now and then and someone with such intense interest in such an omnipresent object, you can ask why isn't everybody interested in it? Or how come more people aren't? So what got you into it?

[Lika Guhathakurta]

You know, it's not a traditional approach. Right. So I'll give the the most honest answer I can give, which is I came to the sun almost by accident. I was trained as an astrophysicist, interested in stars in general. And you know what that is all about, Neil? Then I realized that we spend studying stars that are light years away. And you know, we have one star which sits only eight light minutes from us and allows us to examine it in exquisite detail. So the sun became the most exciting laboratory I could imagine. We can see the surface change, listen to its interior fly through its atmosphere of late, and watch its influence literally move all the way to Earth and the edge of the solar system. Which is our Milky Way galaxy.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay, so right now, do you live in the sun? Is this your. And you just come out for interviews?

[Lika Guhathakurta]

We do live in the atmosphere of a living, breathing star. What can you say?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Oh, good. I thought she did that. See what she did there? That was good. So now I remember coming through graduate school, there was a subfield of heliophysics called helioseismology, and they were borrowing the word from Earth seismology and Earth. As you watch earthquake waves move through the Earth and they refract and bend, and you can infer what the middle of the Earth is like from the delayed signals from different points on Earth's surface. And so that made sense to me because Earth is like solid. The sun is not solid. So when I heard them talk about this, it was like, yeah, okay, let's see what you got. But it's a real subfield. Could you tell me how that works? And is what's going on in the middle of the sun settled science at this point?

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Ooh, that's. Well, you have to give me some time. Lot of questions kind of coupled together. Helioseismology is very much a well established subgroup of heliophysics. Solar physics. It's exactly how you describe. Now, sun is not solid. I think we all know that. But there are vibrations, sound vibrations taking place in the interior of the sun. And that's what we. So we image the vibrations and then infer essentially the interior properties of the sun, like the convection zone you can't

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

see inside the Sun. Everything has to be inferred.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

That's inside the sun, everything.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So are all scientists who study this inferring the same thing? So that there's general agreement about what the middle of the sun is up to?

[Chuck Nice]

Or is it like dentists, where you have four out of five dentists surveyed says that you should brush your teeth? I don't know who that fifth dentist is.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

He ain't got no teeth.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Okay, hey, let me say that we do our best. We are doing ultrasound on the sun. Okay. It's not a dental office. That's what we are doing. So seismology is like really ultrasound. And the more observations, you have more continuous observations. That's why Solar Dynamics Observatory was created. You know, we needed 99.9% of the data continuously because any data gap can lead to erroneous results.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So sdo the Solar Dynamics Observatory, many of the images we've seen of the sun's surface in high detail are credited to that observatory. I assume that's in space somewhere. Correct.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

It is in space somewhere. It's actually near Earth space. Because the volume of data is so high, we have our own dedicated ground station in New Mexico, so we couldn't send it to like L1, but we are watching the sun nearly 24 7. There are eclipse periods because of its orbit being close to Earth. But yes, there were a lot of thought.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So if it was much, much closer to Earth, it would have daytime and nighttime. But you want near 247 observations. Obviously, the farther away from you Earth, the less Earth is going to get in the way. Right, right.

[Chuck Nice]

Or anything else.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, or anything. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, it turns out in this episode, we were mining the questions that had accumulated in our cosmic queries search. And some of them are sun related. And we exhumed them for just your arrival here. And then we'll get on with my conversation with you. So, Chuck, you got questions for.

[Chuck Nice]

We just got a few that are specifically for leaked.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

These are from our Patreon. Patreons.

[Chuck Nice]

From our Patreon patrons. And by the way, whenever we get the opportunity to say thank you to the Patreon patrons, we definitely offer our heartfelt gratitude because, you know, you give us the money. The money.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Don't be so crass to say you give us support.

[Chuck Nice]

I'm sorry, you freely give of yourself to support us. Thank you.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

See, that's what I'm saying.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

You give us your ideas. Yes, that's what they're doing.

[Chuck Nice]

That's what they're doing.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's true.

[Chuck Nice]

They do, because they offer their questions and perspectives. And perspectives and, you know, so, okay, this is Lothar Irkens. I love the name Lothar. That's so cool. It's like a caveman name.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, yeah, of course.

[Chuck Nice]

Lothar.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Lothar.

[Chuck Nice]

Hello, Dr. T. Lord. Nice. And Leca Lothar from Edwardsville, Illinois. Has anybody ever crunched the numbers on how much mass our sun has lost since igniting the fusion process and recorded the results? Just curious. That's weird now. But the real question is because the sun is radiating.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yes.

[Chuck Nice]

Is it indeed losing mass as it's radiating?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's the whole.

[Chuck Nice]

That's the shebang right there.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. So the real question for Leka is, is this something you guys care about? Cause you can calculate this, right? Very simply, actually. Okay, we know how much energy is coming off the sun every second. Okay. Okay. Convert that into mass, because it's making that energy by equals MC squared.

[Chuck Nice]

Right?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And now that's how much mass is losing per second. Now you ask how many seconds has the sun been alive.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It was a little brighter in the past, but. And then you get a total mass. So lika, is this something that matters to the heliophysicist, the rate at which the sun is losing mass? Because I think the rate is pretty slow.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Well, it's not so much the rate, but the fact that it is losing mass. How much mass? In what ways?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

In what ways?

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Yes, the sun has two main leaks you already mentioned. One fusion of it converts 600 million tons of hydrogen into helium. Of that, 4 million metric tons of mass is converted into energy. That's every second. You know, it's E equal to MC squared that you mentioned. Yes, that's what's going on.

[Chuck Nice]

That's amazing.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

But there is another one that people might not know about, and that is that solar wind carries away roughly another 1 to 2 million tons of matter each second. Okay, so altogether, the sun at this present time is losing roughly between 5 and 6 million metric tons, basically. Right.

[Chuck Nice]

Per second.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

And that sounds alarming until you actually remember the size of the sun, its mass, and over its lifetime, you know, people have calculated because all these scientists are basically nerves. So you can imagine someone calculated this somewhere, and it's not a difficult calculation. So over its lifetime, the total is only sort of an order of 0.03% of the total mass of the Sun. So sun maintains its weight very well.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah, unlike me. The sun knows you're accreting mass. I am accreting mass, while the sun is maintaining its mass.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay, so if the sun has strong gravity, as we all know and love it, that's what keeps us in orbit. How is it losing particles? Why don't the particles just stay with the Sun? What accelerates them and sends them out?

[Lika Guhathakurta]

You are jumping to all kinds of subtle science questions which I haven't even gone to. Oh, so you are absolutely right. I mean, everything you know on the sun at all things are governed by basically gravity, pressure, magnetic field close to the sun that we call the corona. The particles are dominated by gravity and magnetic field. And then we get to a point where the temperature in the corona rises. So much pressure increases and particles become what we call the solar wind. And that region is called the alphanic surface, or alfen critical point, where the particles are no longer tethered to the sun by gravity.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

You may have heard the best voice in show business, Morgan Freeman, talking about a serious and underdiagnosed heart condition that's often missed. A ttr, cardiac amyloidosis, or attrcm. It's a condition that can greatly disrupt your life, with symptoms like severe fatigue, shortness of breath and carpal tunnel. If left untreated, ATTRCM may become serious, leading to a shorter lifespan. A truby helps adults with ATTRCM live longer and have fewer hospitalisations due to heart issues, so you can focus more on living for what you love. Tell your doctor if you're pregnant, plan to become pregnant or are breastfeeding and about the medications you take. The most common side effects were mild and included diarrhea and abdominal pain. If you have a TTRCM, talk to your cardiologist about a Truby and visit attruby.com podcast that's ATT R U B-Y.com podcast to learn more. It's time to get busy living. Brought to you by Bridge Bio these days we're used to getting things delivered on demand groceries, a new gadget or the latest book expanding your view of the universe. And now you can add t mobile 5G home Internet to that list. Just order from T Mobile and enjoy same day delivery with doordash and you can set it up yourself in about 4:15 minutes, no advanced engineering degree required. That means more time doing the things you actually enjoy, like streaming a space documentary or going down a rabbit hole about exoplanets, asteroids or whatever's pulling your curiosity. And those online explorations are a lot easier with the fastest 5G home Internet. So if you're moving into a new place or just ready to upgrade your connection to something a little more Advanced, visit t mobile.com homeinternet to check availability and get your home Internet delivered today. Same day delivery for most Internet eligible customers. See if it's an option during checkout Fastest according to OOKLA Speed test intelligence data second half 2025 all rights reserved.

[Chuck Nice]

Today's show is sponsored by Strawberry Me. Are you where you want to be in your career? Or are you waking up every day knowing you're capable of more but not sure how to get there? Success doesn't just happen, and most people in the world don't figure it out alone. They have mentors and coaches guiding them every step of the way. You don't have to figure it out alone either. That's where Strawberry Me Career Coaching can help Career coaching gives you the clarity, strategy and accountability needed to turn your goals into reality. Whether it's landing a new job, advancing in your current role, or transitioning into a field you love. With expert guidance you'll identify obstacles holding you back, develop a step by step plan and take action with confidence, knowing you have a dedicated coach supporting you every step of the way. Go to Strawberry Me Startalk and get 50% off your first coaching session. That's Strawberry Me Startalk. It's like therapy for your career. Hey, this is Kevin the sommelier, and I support StarTalk on Patreon. You're listening to StarTalk with Neil DeGrasse Tyson. All right. This is Corey Hoss, who says. Hey, simple question. Does the sun make noise if space allowed for sound to travel?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Hmm. Well, you already mentioned that. We do some ultrasound measurements. So if sound can move through it, I think this question is anything we can listen in on. Is there some or if there was some way for sound to cross the vacuum of space, what would the sun sound like?

[Lika Guhathakurta]

It's a deep question, Neil. I find all sun questions to be deep. By the way, I love these questions. They seem ordinary on the face of it, but really, you have to think about it, right? So the answer is the sun is not quiet. Imagine, as if I've said something. It rings like an enormous musical instrument with millions of overlapping pressure waves that I talked about that creates the field of helioseismology and a strong family of these oscillations around five minutes. And five minute oscillation has been known for a while when we started actually measuring these surface waves. Now, Neel, you already said we cannot hear that sound directly because the vacuum between the sun and Earth does not carry ordinary acoustic waves. And I would say, thank God for that. Space is nature's sort of finest soundproofing canceling device outside of the Bose acoustics. Right?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah.

[Chuck Nice]

I wish my bedroom was space.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

We still listen by, as I mentioned, by measuring the tiny motions. And we do it with ultrasound. So if. If. And this is. This is like, you know, I can't be certain about it, but if we could answer your question, Neil. Somehow get those sound to propagate in our environment. It is thought that that would sound like a loud, roaring lawnmower.

[Chuck Nice]

Lawnmower, yes.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Only on weekends. Don't do that during the weekday.

[Chuck Nice]

Or at least it's not a leaf blower.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

It would be constant. Okay. It's not going to stop. That's our thing. Right? So be grateful, Chuck, that space is a vacuum. Otherwise we'd be living with that now,

[Chuck Nice]

see, I would have thought it would have sounded like a frying egg.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Oh, quick

[Chuck Nice]

like that. That makes more sense. But a lawnmower, that's crazy.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

So some of the big waves will do that. Either little ones could be crackling like an egg, you know.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So a couple of things. I just want to re. Emphasize the concept of a pressure wave.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah, I was about to.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So when I speak, it creates a pulse of energy in the air that is a pulse that moves forward and backwards. And so it's that forward and backwards pulse that hits your eardrum that vibrates

[Chuck Nice]

to vibrate through eardrum.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right. And that's how you move sound.

[Chuck Nice]

So now normally when you think of a pressure wave, not just from speaking, when you hear pressure wave, often that is associated with an explosion. Okay, yeah. So, like, there's an explosion, and emanating from the explosion is the pressure wave, which is what does all the damage, right?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yes, exactly. What does all the damage. And so it's an extreme pressure wave.

[Chuck Nice]

Extreme pressure wave, yeah. So the sound.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's why if it sound is too loud, it'll blow out your eardrum.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

The pressure wave is too high.

[Chuck Nice]

Right on.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right.

[Chuck Nice]

So, but here's what I want to know. Is the sun with these pressure waves, is that the result of, like, explosions on the sun?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. So, like, what is the cause of these pressure waves? You analogize it to a musical instrument. Who's playing? Where's the orchestra?

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Well, I mean, the deep seated orchestra is always at the core, but I'm not going there. It's the conviction zone, where there is like a pot of boiling plasma. Okay. That creates the magnetic field and everything outward that we experience.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So these five minute oscillations that you describe, that means something in the sun is repeating every five minutes. Is it one of the sort of convective cells or something else?

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Yes, if you pattern. If you actually measured this. Right. I said there are many resonant.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yes. Overlapping.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

So you see this?

[Chuck Nice]

Wow, that is wild.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay, and let me ask you this. One of the images I saw from the SDO was so close up, and you could see like the surface of the sun as though it was a gurgling, boiling. It was like a cauldron or something.

[Chuck Nice]

Nice.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And this, it's almost mesmerizing. You're just watching it boil. And of course, if you were on the sun, you might hear it, but you would vaporize first.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

You're gonna fall down. There is no surface.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Oh, yeah, yeah. You're falling into that.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

It's got strong gravity. I mean, so many ways to think about this. Right. Strange things will happen.

[Chuck Nice]

Interesting. That is interesting.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Chuck, I think we have one more question before we resume the episode as intended. What do you have?

[Chuck Nice]

All right, here we go. This One is from Monopoly World.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's their handle.

[Chuck Nice]

That's the handle that's given.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

All right.

[Chuck Nice]

And Monopoly World says this. Please tell me everything about the heliosphere.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. Do you have five hours?

[Chuck Nice]

Really?

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Well, I thought nobody would ever ask that question.

[Chuck Nice]

It's about time.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Seriously, I love this question, actually. And, yeah, five hours would be an adequate amount of time. Neel, you want to introduce the sun? Then I'll follow.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Let me stoke the engine, and then she can drive the train where it needs to go.

[Chuck Nice]

All right, so you'll crank it up.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Allow me to remind people that the Greek word for the sun is helios.

[Chuck Nice]

Helios.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. And it's where we get the name for the second element on the periodic table. Helium, discovered on the sun before it was discovered on Earth.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, wow.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So it was of the sun. Heliosphere. And so, heliosphere. You can ask. There's the sun. But how about everything outside the sun? Does the sun have any influence there? And if it does, let's still connect it back to the sun. So, Leeka, correct me if I'm wrong. Everything that the sun touches, I feel like a lion king. Wherever the sun touches is your kingdom.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. Wherever the sun influences particles and magnetic fields beyond itself is the heliosphere.

[Chuck Nice]

Is the heliosphere.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I think that's right. Is that correct?

[Lika Guhathakurta]

It is correct.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

It is correct.

[Chuck Nice]

That's our entire solar system, isn't it?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Well, let's find out.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

And the boundary, too.

[Chuck Nice]

And a boundary as well.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Yeah, it's very interesting. Remind me to give this analogy. But, you know, simply put, we all know that. I think we all know that Earth has a magnetic cocoon or a bubble. And think of it, either way, we can see, touch it, but we feel it magnetically, and it's called the magnetosphere. Well, the sun creates a much larger cocoon, or bubble with the solar wind. Solar wind doesn't stop anywhere. It continues to propagate. Right. And it's a bubble that surrounds all the planets and presses against the local interstellar medium. This is like the boundary with our own Milky Way galaxy. That is the heliosphere. And I'd like to say that we have actually punched through the heliosphere. That is. I mean, NASA spacecraft launch in the 70s have done that. Right?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So in the comedy worlds, they say, you are punching up,

[Lika Guhathakurta]

we are punching out.

[Chuck Nice]

Out, out, punching out.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yes.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

There you go. So they are in the interstellar medium. And you know, this boundary. Just like we learned that the Alfven surface boundary, we learned with Parker Solar probe. That it's. We used to think of it, you know, a spherical surface. That's what we scientists do. We start with the simplest assumptions till, you know, observations tell us something else. Well, it's the same thing here. This. Because the two Voyager spacecraft went in two different direction latitude. We know that the heliosphere is not a symmetric boundary, basically.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So it's a little closer on one side than on another side.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Yeah. And they respond to the solar wind pressure, magnetic field. And this is heliosphere is really our home. It protects us from the harmful cosmic radiation from the interstellar medium.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So technically, the heliosphere is the solar system. Don't be so planet biased about it.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Yeah, thank you.

[Chuck Nice]

Well, you know, we don't, you know,

[Lika Guhathakurta]

it's a star's environment. I mean, other stars have environment bubbles. They are called astrospheres. So this is suns.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay, so what about the magnetopause?

[Chuck Nice]

Is that the son of going through like a change of life magnetopause?

[Lika Guhathakurta]

We pause. We pause.

[Chuck Nice]

I'm going through magnetopause.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Oh, it's hot.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I am so hot.

[Chuck Nice]

Magnetopause is killing me.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

You pause there, you get your breath, then you keep moving on.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

But these boundaries tend to have the word pause in them, if I remember my vocabulary.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Yes, they do. And so basically what. So magnetopause is kind of used in reference to Earth's magnetosphere. Heliopause is in reference to sun's magnetosphere, which is the heliosphere, etc. But what they're trying to do, they essentially describe physics laws. Right. So, you know, is it gravity dominated, Is it pressure dominated, Is it magnetic fields sweeping out? Those are the conditions that these boundaries define.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I remember the day it was reported when the Voyager one, I think, exited the heliosphere.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It's the heliopause at the end. And we were all excited, but we asked, well, how does it know? And so it has these sensors on board that knows where the sun is because of the sun's influence on them. But then you reach a point where the sensors went haywire.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

They couldn't find the sun, couldn't find the. Didn't know which way the sun was because the sun's influence was dropping while the galactic influence was rising. There's a point where they were about the same and you could no longer uniquely point which way the sun was. We say it has left the solar system.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, yeah, that's pretty cool.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

It's like a compass needle behaves. Right?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

You know, if you take it to the north Pole. What will it show?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. Which way is it going to point?

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah, well, I. I think it just points every way.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

It goes haywire.

[Chuck Nice]

Every way it can. Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

If you. If you were to personify that. Oh, my gosh, I don't know. I am without direction in my life. Right.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Yeah, yeah. For the first time.

[Chuck Nice]

So when you look at the heliosphere. Okay. And then you get to the pause, and now you have the galactic influence.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay. Now, is the gravity of our star still influencing anything beyond that point as well?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, that's a simple thing. The gravity goes forever.

[Chuck Nice]

Goes forever.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Forever.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Chuck, you are so smart. My God, nobody dare bring up such questions.

[Chuck Nice]

Well, thank you.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Awesome.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So the sun's gravity extends forever, but so does Earth's gravity. So does the moon's gravity. So all that really matters to you is that somebody else's gravity that's dominating.

[Chuck Nice]

Influencing where you are. Gotcha.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And we exploit that when we go to the Moon, we only give the spacecraft enough energy to get to the point where the moon's gravity takes over. Takes over, and then it falls towards the moon.

[Chuck Nice]

Gotcha.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I don't need.

[Chuck Nice]

You don't need anything more than that.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I don't need rocket fuel to fall towards the Moon. So at that point, of course, Earth's gravity is still there, but it's dominated by the moon's gravity when you're close enough to the moon.

[Chuck Nice]

Gotcha.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. So that's where it's the gravity thing.

[Chuck Nice]

So our sun's gravity. Now here's the. Is there something that could fall into the influence of our sun's gravity so far out that it pulls it into our solar system?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Oh, yeah.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Oh, yeah. Let me tell you. Oh, yeah.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Well, that isn't that subject for another topic, another show.

[Chuck Nice]

That's another show. Okay.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

A lot of controversy attached, but it's kind of fun. It's really fun because we are beginning to look everywhere and what we had taken for settled signs is very unsettled.

[Chuck Nice]

Ooh, love that.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And unsettling.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

And that too. But may I add, you know, heliosphere is my favorite thing. Right. May I add. Couple of more.

[Chuck Nice]

Please, please do it.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Because you were instructed to say everything there is to know about the heliosphere. That was your instructions. So please proceed.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

So heliosphere literally partly shields the planets from galactic cosmic radiation. And so before you reach interstellar space, you first have to leave home. And that is our home. And two thoughts. As I was thinking about this topic, when I said bubble. Magnetosphere is a bubble Or a cocoon. And same thing with sun's magnetosphere, which is the heliosphere. This is like a bubble within a bubble within a bubble. And it takes me to a fractal zone. It's like nature kind of knows how to replicate a good thing. I kind of want to embed that idea. This is, this is how, you know, stars have astrosphere. So everything you look around has this zone of magnetic field that we can't see, we can't touch. Okay. And so my final comment to you is that you live inside a star's gigantic magnetic embrace. It keeps you safe. Do not forget that. And thank it.

[Chuck Nice]

Look at that. That's pretty cool. Now it makes perfect sense that people used to worship the sun because they

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

knew, they knew, they knew.

[Chuck Nice]

They knew more than we did. They were like, hey, man, that thing is coming, keeping us safe. All right? We need to show it a little respect.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So, lica, catch me up on the Parker solar probe, because last I encountered it, I was telling everybody about how it achieved a speed record for any human made object, because there was some trajectories as it fell towards the sun, where the sun accelerated it. And it was some still very small fraction of the speed of light, but faster than anything had been sent before. But the Parker solar probe, what was its mission and did it accomplish it, and is it still going?

[Lika Guhathakurta]

You know, I'm answering the last question first. Yes, Parker solar probe is going strong. You know, the first seven years. It launched in 2018. The first seven years were basically dedicated to doing the prime mission. And after that, NASA is going to decide it as operating mission. So what Parker solar probe has done now, after 24 orbits, it took it to its closest point, called the perihelion. It's about something like close to 10 solar radii, 3.8 million miles. But I know things in solar radii. It's inside of 10 solar radii. And that was important because we wanted to have a little bit of idea of crossing over from the alfven zone into the corona, where the particles actually become solar wind. So we've done 24 of those and reached the closest point. And now we just kind of finished, I think, 28th perihelion in June.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Wait, wait, wait. Lica, is that closest point within the corona, or is it still kind of safe outside the corona? Cause you said eight radii. That feels a little distant.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Fancy you would ask that, Neil. That's such a binary question. Seriously.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Damn. Just getting dissed on my own shelf.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

So, okay, I already told you, right. That the Alfven surface Alfen zone is not a spherically symmetrical zone. It's not at 5 solar radii. 10 solar radii. We made lots of assumptions.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

There's not a sign there saying entering the Alphan zone.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

No. So we are actually close enough that we go in and out, and we are actually able to measure the pristine solar wind in the corona.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, that's very cool.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's the best of all world.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

That's how it was designed.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

If you're only in it, you're just getting the same measurement. What good is that?

[Chuck Nice]

That's really cool.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Very cool.

[Chuck Nice]

Very cool.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Very cool. Instead of going to the poles of the sun, that was the original idea of Solar probe, said, hey, we are going to the sun. We are going to take. And that would have taken very little data and said, no, we want data. And so we created this alternate concept in the ecliptic. And we get Venus gravity de assist to our momentum. So it's between Venus and the closest point to sun, and that point is 3.8 million miles. But let's stick to solar radii.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. The sun's diameter is almost a million miles across right now. Lika said something just casually. Go ahead. But I got to stop on it and like, give an explanation. All right, okay. She said. What's the word you use?

[Chuck Nice]

De.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

What?

[Chuck Nice]

Accelerate?

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Oh, no, no, no. Gravitational. De assist.

[Chuck Nice]

De assist.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

De assist.

[Chuck Nice]

The de assist.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah.

[Chuck Nice]

Not deist.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

De assist.

[Chuck Nice]

De assist. As opposed to.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

We are so accustomed to hearing by gravitational assist. Because you have a probe that doesn't have enough energy to get to its destination. You sneak up behind a planet, right. You fall towards the planet, you gain its orbital speed, and you keep coming out the other side, Right. So you can do this, boost your speed, get to wherever you want in the solar system. Here's the problem. You want to get to the sun. The sun is not in orbit, Right. We're in orbit around here. We got to somehow eat that orbital speed.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

We got to get rid of it somehow so that we can fall in

[Chuck Nice]

towards the sun because we don't want to overshoot it, Correct, Correct.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So if you come the other direction into a planet, you get a D assist.

[Chuck Nice]

Ah, okay. Gotcha. Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And Venus is sitting there conveniently between us and the sun. And so Venus is doing the breaking for us. Doing the breaking for us.

[Chuck Nice]

That's really cool.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So it seems like, I don't know if it's true or not, that there's been more auroral activity visible at latitudes farther south than usual.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And the aurora we know comes from the solar wind.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And the solar wind is stoked, we know, from the solar cycle. Okay, so Lika, tell me about the solar cycle. I know it's a big question, but how often do we have you. Okay, the solar cycle and what it does to the solar wind. And is the sun burping up more wind lately than historically or are we just better informed because we have space weather people saying look north, go north this weekend aurora. Check it out.

[Chuck Nice]

There you go.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Is it just our awareness or is it really happening?

[Chuck Nice]

And what do some burps smell like? Is it like pastrami?

[Lika Guhathakurta]

That has to be the naked cosmic query question. And I will answer not right now, because I have to think about it. But it's a great question, I think. What will it answer? So solar cycle, I mean, I don't even. We talked about this in some of the previous shows, where to begin. But generally speaking, you know, solar, the convection zone that we talked about and the convection cells and all that, and the churning of plasma and creating magnetic field with dynamo, all of these creates kind of condition for generating. It is moving plasma creates magnetic field. That's the key thing to remember, the same process of dynamo anyway.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

But in the case of the sun, it has a beat. It has couple of beats, actually.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Well, I just want to add something there. So it's not just moving plasma that creates magnetic field, it's any moving charge. Right. And a plasma is a charged cloud. Right. So you get the magnetic field for free because there are free charges moving in the plasma.

[Chuck Nice]

In the plasma.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right. But turbines and things that generate electricity, they have a, they have charges moving within a magnetic field and it creates a current. But anyway, so it's a, it's a broader fact than just a plasma moving.

[Chuck Nice]

Well, no, we have one on Earth, but it's because we have a iron core.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Oh. In our core. It's liquid, but it's liquid. Yes, otherwise it'd be dead.

[Chuck Nice]

It's molten.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

When Earth cools completely, we lose our magnetic field.

[Chuck Nice]

And when we're done. Right. We're toast.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

At that point we just have to go underground.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, and now we're chuds. Now we're chuds.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay, please, please continue.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Actually, kind of this is something, you know, talking about a little bit more. Whenever you hear the term electromagnetic, we really can't separate electricity and magnetism. They are coupled. They are coupled physical process one generates the other, one's movement generates the other. And that's what you are saying, Neil. And it depends what's moving and what's stationary. And depending on that you either create an electric field or a magnetic field.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, there you go.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, that's cool.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It's very cool.

[Chuck Nice]

I mean that's a great way to think about it.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's very cool.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah. That they're part of the same thing always.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yes, all right. Yes.

[Chuck Nice]

All right, Great.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's great. So you have this turbulence.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

So all this is happening and so we get like couple of signatures from all of these. And that is roughly 11 year solar cycle, where the solar magnetic cycle peaks, where we get these sunspots, you know, big gigantic freckles on the sun. They are dark, but they are dark not because they are less intense or energetically less, but because the magnetic field is so strong it inhibits kind of outward propagation of radiation. So you see it dimly in comparison to the rest of the surface. So magnetic field, so solar max is a period when you have lots of sunspots. They basically start at high mid latitude, 50 degrees north and south, then they gradually decline and then we get into solar minimum. And in solar minimum there are times when you have no sunspot. That doesn't mean the sun is dead. There is still sort of a basal magnetic field always. And these are things we are understanding better. But another interesting thing that happens is, and that's why I say two bits, right? So there is the sort of the 11 year solar cycle. Magnetic field increases, magnetic field decreases. But there is a flipping of the magnetic field also. So magnetism has two poles, north and south pole. Take a bar magnetic and you will see those polarities if you put iron filings around them. So in the case of the sun, what happens, what was say one polarity in one hemisphere, say northern hemisphere changes completely in 11 years, but in 22 years it goes back to its original polarity. And Neil, you have to explain this. That's why it's called a one magnetic solar cycle as opposed to one solar cycle. So the outward effect of space weather kind of phenomenon doesn't care quite as much. We haven't at least seen its evidence. More data might lead us to understand it better, but they depend on really the intensity of the magnetic field and how many coronal mass ejections are happening, how many solar storms are happening. They happen in each cycle from maximum to minimum.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So the space weather cares less about the polarity of the sun than it does about the intensity of the magnetic field at any given time. So that's a fair statement.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Well, I want to kind of be very clear about it because polarity does matter at Earth, but it is not the polarity on the sun. So what the solar polarity is doing is less consequential.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, that's all I was trying to say.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

But the coronal mass ejections, when they come towards Earth and interact with our magnetic field, our magnetosphere, then the polarity with that the particles are carrying is very important.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

You know, in one case you would actually have a reconnection and particles would penetrate where our magnetosphere is no longer a bubble or a shear. In the other case, they are just

[Chuck Nice]

going to get just bounce off.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

So they repel.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

There once was a magic sorry. At Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, we

[Lika Guhathakurta]

don't do fairy tales.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

We do real like real adventures to Mars or real journeys into the future to see how imagination can really take us to strange new worlds and real trips into the past where we meet heroes and legends way ahead of their time. Real rockets, real astronauts, real adventure. All at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Discover something real.

[Chuck Nice]

August is the perfect time to hit the reset button before the autumn rush begins. And your closet is a great place to start. Quince is the perfect place to refresh a wardrobe with timeless high quality essentials like their ultra soft organic cotton tees and premium Mongolian cashmere sweaters. One of my personal favorites. They're versatile, timeless and transition seamlessly from casual work day to dinner out. Everything at Quint's is priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. They work directly with ethical factories and cut out the middlemen. So you're paying for high quality, not brand markup. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I'm really happy that Quince is a sponsor of StarTalk because I've been a patron of Quince for years. So much of my wardrobe is Quince, I can't even begin to tell you. But I have slacks, I have shirts, I have underwear, I have sweaters, I have jackets. And not only that, when I buy somebody a clothing gift, I make sure I get them some cashmere from Quince because everybody loves cashmere and it's always a winner. The quality can't be beat. Now that's my personal experience. So why don't you find out for yourself? Upgrade your everyday. Go to quince.com startalk for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK too. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com startalk for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quints.com

[Lika Guhathakurta]

courage. I learned it from my adoptive mom. Hold my hand. You hold my hand. Learn about adopting a team from foster

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

[e-mail] you can't imagine the reward brought to you by Adopt Us Kids, the U.S. department of Health and Human Services,

[Lika Guhathakurta]

and the Ad Council.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So comment please on the greater frequency of reported aurora. Because I looked at how peaky the last solar maximum was. It was not oddly high. It was, you know, maybe even a little low compared with an average over the last 50 years or so or 100 years. So is this just better reporting? Because I. It was like 11pm And I looked to my right. I was driving on Long Island, I looked to my right and the sky was kind of glowing reddish.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And I said, wait a minute. The sun set many hours ago. They can't be sunset colors. Wait a minute, I'm facing north. What the. So I pulled over, pulled out my phone, my camera phone, and took a photo, which is. The phone is more sensitive than your eyes are two different colors. And there it was. Aurora. It was aurora. And I'd never seen aurora on Long island before in New York.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

And so do you remember the time, which month?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I do remember the date. It was October 10, 2024. And that year was Solar Max, isn't that correct?

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Yep.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay, cool. So are you friends with the aurora? Like, yeah, I know that one.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Well, I have son's number. I could tell you a couple of stories above the sun. And so this is. You're asking a very important question because it is a question in my mind and someday when I am not working professionally, I want to go back to science and actually kind of try to understand this. And I share whatever I experience and my speculative thoughts on this. I'm not going to go there right now. But it is, it is a confluence of two things. We are all very aware. So I would say heliophysics, big year that I talked about in 2024. And overall, the outreach that NASA has done over the years has really sipped in to the community consciousness. So people are paying more attention. We have better cameras, so we are capturing this. But still, that doesn't answer everything.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

However, I do end every show saying, keep looking up.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

You should, you should.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

No, no, I do. Every show ends that way. So maybe it's us, right?

[Chuck Nice]

Just seeing what we should be seeing. Cause we actually did what we were supposed to do.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

We're looking up. So that's a little piece of it. We don't know how big a piece

[Lika Guhathakurta]

is a little piece of it. So the aurora happens when solar wind particles come and interact, you know, with our atmosphere, dislodging oxygen atoms to their electrons to higher orbits. And we get different colors, like green at 100, 200 km, red with higher energy. These are all oxygen at higher elevation. And then you have blue and green for nitrogen. So we kind of know all this. What exactly is going on? But remember one thing, that auroras are most visible in the higher southern or northern latitudes around the magnetic axis and which is substantially different from the actual geographic north south axis. So May 2024 was actually one of those auroras where basically it is the first G5. NOAA sort of describe storms in scales. And G5 is the highest geomagnetic storm scale that particular. The May 2024 Aurora was G5 level. And it lit up all the way to Ladakh, India, to Florida. I mean, think about being south. It is incredibly south. Right. So if you allow me, I kind of want to describe. There are a couple of personal stories related to aurora that hadn't happened until this solar cycle.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Oh, please. Yes.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

One is May 2024. You know, that happened between May 10th and 12th, 2024. I was in D.C. i didn't get to see the aurora. My friends took pictures, as I would have seen it from our deck in Boulder and sent it to me. About a week earlier, dear friend and colleague of mine, Dr. Jennifer Gannon, a space weather scientist from Boulder, passed away. And I was heartbroken. And I wrote a short piece on LinkedIn, essentially celebrating her life. And to me, it felt like that aurora display was nature celebrating her life. And I wrote a little haiku on that. Yeah. And this was actually picked up by White House, and we named our first solar storm as Gannon Storm.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, that's lovely.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

We, meaning, you know, not anybody I know, but White House people, space weather people. This is incredible. You know, we have named Hurricanes for 100 years.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right, right, right.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

But this is the first time that we named a storm.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Well, that's beautiful. That's beautiful.

[Chuck Nice]

It really is.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Well, thanks for sharing that. Yeah, yeah.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

There's one more.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Another one. Okay.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Well, because they are so personal, I cannot not say it.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Please.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

So in November 2025. Now, you know, this is kind of a sad story. You know, in my life, who has looked at the sun, chased eclipses, studied everything? I had never seen an aurora with my own eyes. I had not. In November, between 11th to 13th of November. And this event reached the G4 scale of Noah. It's like the sun did a private show for me. I saw an aurora so bright from 6:30pm to 3am in the morning, and our neighbors thought, you know, I had gone crazy, you know, basically.

[Chuck Nice]

Now I myself have been in a position where I've seen colors from 6:30pm to 3:00am I'm not sure. I'm not gonna say it was aurora, just gonna say it was very beautiful, though.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

The sun didn't speak to you in color, but your mental state did, which is pre.

[Chuck Nice]

Awesome.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That worked pretty awesome. Why not? Why not? So the sun has these storms every now and then, but they have to be aimed towards Earth for that to affect us in the way we describe for aurora.

[Chuck Nice]

Right?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Because if it's not aiming towards Earth, then it just misses Earth. Right.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Then it goes to Mars or any other place or directly into heliosphere.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. I just want to be clear that not every storm observed on the sun results in aurora on Earth.

[Chuck Nice]

So with that in mind, I wanted to ask, well, both of you, I can't remember the name of the movie, but I believe the opening scene is these catastrophic coronal mass ejections that are so massive that now in the movie they say these microwaves come to Earth and melt half the damn. Half a century.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay, okay.

[Chuck Nice]

And they're like very random. Some things melt, some things don't.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That was in 2012.

[Chuck Nice]

Is that 2012?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Well, there's another one where they. Geologists go to the middle of the Earth to find out what happened.

[Chuck Nice]

That's the core.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

The core.

[Chuck Nice]

That's the core.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

The core. That's the core. Yeah, Yeah. I think you're talking about 2012.

[Chuck Nice]

Is that 2012?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. And they pulled that out of their ass. Really?

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Okay, you know what? I kind of. Because we know so little. Honestly. Honestly. So it's not okay. One thing we can say, we haven't seen this from the sun. We don't expect to see it, probabilistically speaking, but it is not impossible for other stars. We now study exoplanet. Right? And I think heliophysics informs the exoplanet science. So we have all these red dwarf stars with gigantic sunspots that we don't see on our sun. And they produce coronal mass ejections and storms that are of the gigantic proportion. And so what they could do, we don't know. I mean, that's why science is so beautiful. You know, we export our knowledge to any place in the universe. And sun and Earth, they are our laboratories.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Well, we even can bring past data into the present if it can give us insight into what we should fear. For example, spend a moment because we're running a little bit short in time here. But there's stuff I want to make sure we hit. Was it 1859, this famous solar, the Carrington event, the famous solar flare that short circuited the brand new telegraphs that they had along the railroad to communicate from one station to another. Have we had that event since then, but we were not as susceptible? Or would such an event today knock out all of our satellites which are right now elon alone has 12,000 satellites up there.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

It's actually a fascinating question because one of the things we don't get to measure during such a term. Even during Carrington event, I think there was only one magnetometer in Mumbai, Kulabam Mumbai, that measured the actual magnetic field. So something happens on the sun, but something that all those mass magnetic field particles have to interact with Earth. That is where space weather phenomenon is actually happening. Right? Where the ionosphere gets more ionized, where electricity sort of funnels into, through the soil, into grids and we get power outages. Where energetic particles can spoil satellite sensors. Where astronauts are warned for radiation. Where high altitude aviation is susceptible again for radiation.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

What I want to know is it a G5, G10? What level storm will put our satellites at risk? Because we have a lot of assets right now in space.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

As a scientist, in me, Neil, I think we limit ourselves when we put those restrictions. We don't know enough to say because there are many different phenomena interacting with many different environment. There's magnetic field, field, there's energetic particles, there is radiation. So sometimes even. And I can give you an example. Do you want me to give you an example?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Please do, please.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Okay. So I think in late January, early February 2022, Starlink launch something like some 49 satellites, which it does very periodically. Everybody pays attention to space weather, what the sun is doing. And NOAA actually informs everyone they were aware there was a very mild coronal mass ejection going on. So they were familiar and said no, we can launch into that. They launched and about 38 to 39 of those satellites didn't reach launch orbit with this really medium class coronal mass ejection. So what happened? What happened is that the sun launched many coronal mass ejections that gradually started hitting the thermosphere, ionosphere and created a lot of drag. And the Starlink satellites didn't have enough propulsion, enough Delta V to launch them.

[Chuck Nice]

Look at that.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's yet another way you can impact the health and safety of a satellite. Right, I forgot about that.

[Chuck Nice]

Mika.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Oh my gosh. So do we know what level the Carrington event was from 1859?

[Lika Guhathakurta]

From every indication it was absolutely G5. And I don't think we have the scales right. We get saturated. So we need to really think deeply and I think NOAA and space weather communities thinking about it to really amplify the scales.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. Plus there are a lot of military satellites that are radiation hardened. So there are ways you can sort of. And there are others. For example, you can. We have some of our telescopes, depending on whether we're going into a meteor shower or some other phenomenon, we can actually put the telescope in safe mode. Okay. Close it down, turn it over.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And then. So there are ways to mitigate this.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

That's why prediction is so important.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yes. Space weather. That people just live in the space weather pages.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Yeah.

[Chuck Nice]

People don't talk about space weather the way we talk about our weather. Hot enough for you? They don't do that. It's got real consequences.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

That is going to change. Chuck. Mark my. Mark my word. Get me back in 10 years if I'm still here and not blended with the corona and I'll prove myself right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

If you blended with the corona, it would become that much more colorful.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, look at that. Neil.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Thank you.

[Chuck Nice]

Way to go.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That was good.

[Chuck Nice]

That was good, man.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That was pretty good. All right. What's coming down the pike in the future in missions to the sun?

[Lika Guhathakurta]

So the community, the world has launched, you know, lots of interesting missions. Punch polarimeter to unify the corona and heliosphere. It's a constellation of four small satellites in polar sun synchronous low Earth orbit. And they image the solar wind. That's a gap area in imaging in understanding how solar storms are born in on the surface of the sun and propagate through the corona into interplanetary medium and touch us here at Earth. And that is really going to connect in imaging from the surface of the sun all the way to Earth. And it's extraordinary science. You know, we can connect it to auroras in future. Then we have things like imap, Right. Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe. And that is actually looking at the heliosphere. The original question. It operates from Lagrange point 1 with instruments and it kind of is still it. It started taking its science data I think in February and it is trying to sharpen sort of the discovery that one of the earlier mesh missions called ibex Interstellar Boundary Explorer Found, which was discovery. You know, all of a sudden you look at the helios preface sphere from inside the heliosphere, inside the bubble, and you see this giant ring in high energy energetic neutral atoms. So IMAP is going to shed light on that, but it also serves as a space weather buoy.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I see what you did there. You said it would shed light on it. Yeah, I see that. You catch that? So what you implied there is these missions, they can't use visible light because not all of this is giving us imageable substance in visible light. You need other bands of the spectrum to image the high energy. What bands of light? Ultraviolet, X rays, I guess.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Well, the ultraviolet, X rays, white light, infrared, all of those. But outside of that? Yeah, I mean, some of these you have to be outside of Earth's atmosphere, otherwise they get absorbed. So that's why we have to launch, you know, before we launch sort of extreme ultraviolet and X ray satellites. This is back, right? We did not really know that the sun was a cauldron as you described very early on of this sort of seething plasma. You can't see that in white light.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So lica is the United States a leader in the world in studying the sun or what other countries are players here in this space?

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Sun belongs to no one and sun shines on every flag. There are very many interesting missions from all over the world. Europe plays a very big role. European Space Agency Solar Orbiter which is in partnership with NASA and it takes us up to 30, 35 degrees above the ecliptic so we can view the poles of the sun. Never before done before. We have Proba 3 also in Europe that created two spacecraft to create artificial eclipse. Externally occulted coronagraph at extreme with two spacecraft. And they are finding out again sort of new sources of slow solar wind. The thing is, every time you look somewhere, you find something.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So this is eclipses on demand.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

I love that, Eclipses on demand. India launched Aditya L1. Aditya is sun in Sanskrit, which is parked at L1 looking at the surface of the sun interior with magnetic field of the sun with in situ instruments. So Aditya is Indian's eye on the sun.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

We have JAXA jaxa, the Japanese Space Agency.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

And then there is China. China is doing amazing stuff. So Kwafu L1 mission that was conceived of about 20 years ago its launch, it's measuring all kinds of phenomenon including X ray. So what every agency is doing is looking at the gap areas that a while ago we had as a community created and trying to fill those gaps

[Chuck Nice]

Is this a cooperative effort? Is this information shared around the world with all the other scientists?

[Lika Guhathakurta]

So except for China, everything else is

[Chuck Nice]

shared except for China right now.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Right now.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And by the way, the Artemis Accords.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Which are a modern day attempt to create some level of cooperation in space. In particular, if you discover something that could impact the safety or security of my next mission, somebody else, either my hardware or my wetware people, the brains, then you are obliged to share that.

[Chuck Nice]

To share that.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

But China, last I checked, had not yet signed it, hasn't signed it. India has signed it. And the list of countries you'd expect have signed it. And the list of countries you might expect wouldn't sign it, hasn't signed it yet.

[Chuck Nice]

And of course China, Russia, of course.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Sunlight is spherically symmetric. Shines everywhere, right?

[Chuck Nice]

Everywhere.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

But how it touches us as human being. Our culture evolves. That's like that heliosphere heliopause border or the Alphanic zone border. It's very crooked.

[Chuck Nice]

There you go. Look at that. That was profound. That's a mic drop.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's a mic drop.

[Chuck Nice]

We like it.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Well, leak of the. That's all the time we have. This has been a delight to catch up with you and thanks for sharing those two stories. Sad but beautiful. And about your friend and about yourself.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And what role Aurora played within it. We'll have to catch up with you again. Just, you know, if the sun burps or anything or misbehaves, you're gonna be on our hotline. Okay.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Well, when you get those cosmic query questions, you know.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Oh well, there it is.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

Absolutely on the sun heliosphere. Because everything is under that.

[Chuck Nice]

So there you go.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Everything under the sun.

[Chuck Nice]

Under the sun.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

All right, Chuck, always good to have you, man.

[Chuck Nice]

Always a pleasure.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

All right, this has been startalk. This was the heliophysics edition. Nice, I like that. Until next time, I bid you to keep looking up.

[Chuck Nice]

Introducing Toyota's family of full electric rides. As cool as you are, the adventurous BZ Woodland, the trend setting CHR and the versatile bz. Zip around town in the BZ with a smooth and sporty driving dynamic. Explore the outdoors in the BZ Woodland with dual motors and available all terrain tires. Be bold on the road with the C HR's sharp handling. Imagine what you can do with an all electric vehicle that gets you. Learn more about the new all electric [e-mail] toyota let's go. Places.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Courage.

[Lika Guhathakurta]

I learned it from my adoptive mom. Hold my hand.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You hold my hand.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Learn about adoption.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Adopting a team from foster [e-mail] you

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

can't imagine the reward brought to you

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

by Adopt Us Kids, the U Department

[Lika Guhathakurta]

of Health and Human Services and the AD Council.