Until now, scientists were not sure they even existed – a plasma hurricane in outer space called a “space hurricane”. The space hurricane, a flowing swirl of plasma similar to a real hurricane. was recorded on August 20, 2014, in the magnetosphere above the North Pole. The hurricane occurred more than six years ago but was just discovered by scientists studying old satellite data collected from four meteorological satellites.
The space hurricane was found to be 620 miles wide, about 70-530 miles above the earth, and like a real hurricane, had a hollow core and spiral arms (flow shears) swirling in a counterclockwise direction. The action of the space hurricane spewed electrons into the ionosphere, the Earth’s upper atmosphere that is ionized by solar radiation, for over 8 hours.
A scientist studying the phenomena expressed excitement over the discovery.
“Until now, it was uncertain that space plasma hurricanes even existed, so to prove this with such a striking observation is incredible. Tropical storms are associated with huge amounts of energy, and these space hurricanes must be created by unusually large and rapid transfer of solar wind energy and charged particles into the Earth’s upper atmosphere.”
Scientists believe space hurricanes could be fairly common not just above Earth, but throughout the galaxy and beyond.