our place in the universe we live in the
Milky Way galaxy which is one of around
two trillion galaxies in the observable
universe our Sun is one of around a
hundred thousand stars in the galaxy our
Sun sits at the center of our solar
system with eight planets orbiting
around our Sun drives the weather as we
know it and we all love to moan about it
it does that by heating the surface of
our planet our Sun also drives space
weather the Sun is continuously emitting
streams of charged particles Amane these
interact with the Earth’s magnetic field
space weather is created space weather
can be beautiful when these charged
particles are deflected by our magnetic
field and collide with atoms and
molecules in the Earth’s atmosphere
beautiful Aurora in the form of northern
and sovereign lights are created space
weather can also be very dangerous back
in 1859 dark spots were observed on the
surface of the Sun and we now know these
to be called sunspots what followed was
an ejection M a coronal mass ejection in
which billions of tons of particles were
directed only eighteen hours later they
reached the earth and this coronal mass
ejection caused our magnetic field to be
temporarily compromised the end result
was at Telegraph systems across the
whole of North Northern Europe and
America were disrupted this event became
known as the Carrington event if a
Carrington event was to occur today the
global damage to electrical and
communication systems could be
catastrophic
that’s your mobile phone your tablet
your laptop your PC
power to your homes schools universities
hospital industry you name it all these
electrical and communication systems
that we depend on so much could be at
risk the Carrington event occurred in
1859 and these events are predicted to
occur about every 200 years back in 2012
we had a near miss the Sun are ejected a
coronal mass ejection which missed us by
nine days so how can we predict these
events we need to understand the
processes on the surface of the Sun we
know that these coronal mass ejections
are linked to sunspots
we know that sunspots contain molecules
more specifically diatomic molecules
these are molecules with two atoms
within them we need to be able to track
sunspots and we know that sunspots the
magnetic field is enhanced within them
so we need a way of tracking this
magnetic field within sunspots
the surface of the Sun is about 98%
hydrogen and helium but what’s really
really fascinating about these molecules
that have been found in sunspots is that
they contain elements that come across
from all across the periodic table which
is in this remaining two percent so let
me tell you about some of these
molecules that have been found in
sunspots for an example there is
chromium hydrate chromium hydride is a
molecule that I’ve been working on since
2012
it contains the transition metal
chromium and hydrogen joined together to
make a diatomic molecule there’s around
over 80 of these diatomic molecules that
have been observed so as well as
chromium hydride there’s other types of
hydrates
there’s also carbides chlorides
fluorides oxides nitrides sulfides and
many many more diatomic molecules
containing elements that spanned the
whole of the periodic table so how can
we use these map molecules every
molecule emits a collection of
wavelengths you can think of these like
barcodes different species are met
different barcodes for example as is
shown here these barcodes are subject to
change so if you change the temperature
for example the temperature here 2000
Kelvin is in red a slightly different
for a different temperature if you have
a hydride diatomic this is manganese
hydride which is another of my favorite
molecules if you replace the hydrogen by
deuterium which is a heavy form of
hydrogen you get a shift in this barcode
what’s crucial for sunspots is that
these molecular barcodes are predicted
to shift with magnetic field strength
and this shift in barcode depends on the
strength of the magnetic field strength
so therefore being able to detect these
molecules and their barcodes and how
they change to the magnetic field can
tell us about how the magnetic field
within a sunspot is changing and we know
that these sunspots are related to these
coronal mass ejections so how do we
obtain these barcodes we do this by
calculations this is high level quantum
chemistry calculations but these
calculations that our computer produces
they’re only fear ethical we need
experimental data in order to refine
them and this is where young people can
and have been involved in this work over
the last two years around 40 students
ranging from a level two masters level
have helped collect experimental data
from published scientific papers this
curated data is then used to refine
these calculations which produce these
barcodes so I’ll leave you four for
today
the next time you think about the Sun
please don’t look directly at it
remember its elements its diatomic
molecules that contain elements from all
across the periodic table that one day
might help play a role in helping us
predict when the next Carrington event
might occur thank you [Applause]
Milky Way galaxy which is one of around
two trillion galaxies in the observable
universe our Sun is one of around a
hundred thousand stars in the galaxy our
Sun sits at the center of our solar
system with eight planets orbiting
around our Sun drives the weather as we
know it and we all love to moan about it
it does that by heating the surface of
our planet our Sun also drives space
weather the Sun is continuously emitting
streams of charged particles Amane these
interact with the Earth’s magnetic field
space weather is created space weather
can be beautiful when these charged
particles are deflected by our magnetic
field and collide with atoms and
molecules in the Earth’s atmosphere
beautiful Aurora in the form of northern
and sovereign lights are created space
weather can also be very dangerous back
in 1859 dark spots were observed on the
surface of the Sun and we now know these
to be called sunspots what followed was
an ejection M a coronal mass ejection in
which billions of tons of particles were
directed only eighteen hours later they
reached the earth and this coronal mass
ejection caused our magnetic field to be
temporarily compromised the end result
was at Telegraph systems across the
whole of North Northern Europe and
America were disrupted this event became
known as the Carrington event if a
Carrington event was to occur today the
global damage to electrical and
communication systems could be
catastrophic
that’s your mobile phone your tablet
your laptop your PC
power to your homes schools universities
hospital industry you name it all these
electrical and communication systems
that we depend on so much could be at
risk the Carrington event occurred in
1859 and these events are predicted to
occur about every 200 years back in 2012
we had a near miss the Sun are ejected a
coronal mass ejection which missed us by
nine days so how can we predict these
events we need to understand the
processes on the surface of the Sun we
know that these coronal mass ejections
are linked to sunspots
we know that sunspots contain molecules
more specifically diatomic molecules
these are molecules with two atoms
within them we need to be able to track
sunspots and we know that sunspots the
magnetic field is enhanced within them
so we need a way of tracking this
magnetic field within sunspots
the surface of the Sun is about 98%
hydrogen and helium but what’s really
really fascinating about these molecules
that have been found in sunspots is that
they contain elements that come across
from all across the periodic table which
is in this remaining two percent so let
me tell you about some of these
molecules that have been found in
sunspots for an example there is
chromium hydrate chromium hydride is a
molecule that I’ve been working on since
2012
it contains the transition metal
chromium and hydrogen joined together to
make a diatomic molecule there’s around
over 80 of these diatomic molecules that
have been observed so as well as
chromium hydride there’s other types of
hydrates
there’s also carbides chlorides
fluorides oxides nitrides sulfides and
many many more diatomic molecules
containing elements that spanned the
whole of the periodic table so how can
we use these map molecules every
molecule emits a collection of
wavelengths you can think of these like
barcodes different species are met
different barcodes for example as is
shown here these barcodes are subject to
change so if you change the temperature
for example the temperature here 2000
Kelvin is in red a slightly different
for a different temperature if you have
a hydride diatomic this is manganese
hydride which is another of my favorite
molecules if you replace the hydrogen by
deuterium which is a heavy form of
hydrogen you get a shift in this barcode
what’s crucial for sunspots is that
these molecular barcodes are predicted
to shift with magnetic field strength
and this shift in barcode depends on the
strength of the magnetic field strength
so therefore being able to detect these
molecules and their barcodes and how
they change to the magnetic field can
tell us about how the magnetic field
within a sunspot is changing and we know
that these sunspots are related to these
coronal mass ejections so how do we
obtain these barcodes we do this by
calculations this is high level quantum
chemistry calculations but these
calculations that our computer produces
they’re only fear ethical we need
experimental data in order to refine
them and this is where young people can
and have been involved in this work over
the last two years around 40 students
ranging from a level two masters level
have helped collect experimental data
from published scientific papers this
curated data is then used to refine
these calculations which produce these
barcodes so I’ll leave you four for
today
the next time you think about the Sun
please don’t look directly at it
remember its elements its diatomic
molecules that contain elements from all
across the periodic table that one day
might help play a role in helping us
predict when the next Carrington event
might occur thank you [Applause]
Please follow and like us: