OREANDA-NEWS. June 17, 2010. Astrophysics of Puschino Radio Astronomical Observatory of RAS filled the remaining “white spot” in the numeric description of the interstellar plasma turbulence, PAO of the Institute informs.

The nature of this turbulence is still unclear, though it is one of the most important parameters of the interstellar plasma, since density, motion rate, magnetic field and other parameters change in all dimensions. The scientists proposed several theoretical models to study the variations of the plasmatic disturbance.

Russian astrophysics proposed a new method for the turbulence spectrum measurements – they studied variations of the pulsar impulse distributed in the interstellar plasma. They observed pulsar PSR В2111+46. In addition, the scientists used RF-telescopes to register pulses in 100MHz-5GHz range. Experimentally, they managed to confirm a theoretical assumption that the turbulence is changing gradually in a wide range of frequencies.

However due to insufficient sensitivity of the older methods, previously astrophysics could not measure an internal scale of the spectrum which is very important for understanding the nature of the phenomenon. This time, the astronomers of Puschino confirmed existence of the internal turbulence scale of about 200-500 km.

Now, the scientists will apply these data to verify different theoretical models, to discover the nature of space plasma turbulence eventually.