ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Miho Janvier - Space physicist
TED Fellow Miho Janvier studies the the Sun -- in particular the origin of phenomena called "solar storms" which can impact planets in the solar system.

Why you should listen

Miho Janvier is a space physicist at the Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale, France. Her work focuses on the understanding of when solar flares occur, how solar storms travel in space and how they impact planetary environments in the solar system and other star systems. In a nutshell, she works towards a better prediction of "space weather," with a goal of better understanding the influence of the Sun's activity on human societies. She uses data from space missions from NASA, ESA and JAXA as well as develop 3D computer models of solar eruptions.

Janvier is involved as the deputy project scientist on the instrument SPICE as well as a scientific co-Investigator on the instrument EUI on board Solar Orbiter, the next European Space Agency mission to explore the winds and storms coming out from the Sun. Her passion for astrophysics and science communication has led her to partner with the movie production company TreeHouse Digital Ltd to develop a 360 degrees experience of a solar storm using science data and VFX. This video runs in virtual reality headsets such as the Oculus Rift or Youtube 360, with a goal of educating the public about space science.

More profile about the speaker
Miho Janvier | Speaker | TED.com
TEDGlobal 2017

Miho Janvier: Lessons from a solar storm chaser

Miho Janvier: Lições de uma caçadora de tempestades solares

Filmed:
1,175,884 views

A física que estuda o espaço, Miho Janvier, explora as tempestades solares: são nuvens gigantes de partículas que escapam do Sol e que podem interromper a vida na Terra (por outro lado, produzem as auroras boreal e austral). Como estudar a atmosfera no Sol, que queima em temperaturas de 10 milhões de graus Kelvin? Com matemática! Venha com essa bolsista TED à medida que ela mostra seu trabalho, o qual tenta entender melhor como o Sol nos afeta aqui na Terra.
- Space physicist
TED Fellow Miho Janvier studies the the Sun -- in particular the origin of phenomena called "solar storms" which can impact planets in the solar system. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:13
It is almost the end of the winter,
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Estamos no finzinho do inverno
00:16
and you've woken up to a cold house,
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e acordamos numa casa fria,
00:19
which is weird, because
you left the heater on all night.
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o que é estranho, porque deixamos
o aquecedor ligado a noite toda.
00:24
You turn on the light.
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Tentamos ligar a luz e ela não acende.
00:25
It's not working.
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00:27
Actually, the coffee maker, the TV --
none of them are working.
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Nada funciona, a cafeteira, a TV, nada.
00:33
Life outside also seems to have stopped.
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A vida parece ter parado lá fora.
00:36
There are no schools,
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Escolas estão fechadas,
00:38
most of the businesses are shut,
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a maioria das lojas está fechada,
00:40
and there are no working trains.
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os trens não funcionam.
00:43
This is not the opening scene
of a zombie apocalypse movie.
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Isso tudo não é um filme
de apocalipse zumbi.
00:48
This is what happened in March 1989
in the Canadian province of Quebec,
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Isso aconteceu em março de 1989
na província canadense de Quebec,
00:54
when the power grid lost power.
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quando todo o sistema
elétrico entrou em colapso.
00:57
The culprit?
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O culpado?
00:59
A solar storm.
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Uma tempestade solar.
01:01
Solar storms are giant clouds of particles
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As tempestades solares
são nuvens gigantes de partículas
01:04
escaping from the Sun from time to time,
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que escapam do Sol de vez em quando,
01:06
and a constant reminder that we live
in the neighborhood of an active star.
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e é uma lembrança constante de que vivemos
na vizinhança de uma estrela ativa.
01:13
And I, as a solar physicist,
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E eu, como uma física que estuda o sol,
01:15
I have a tremendous chance
to study these solar storms.
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tenho uma grande oportunidade
de estudar essas tempestades solares.
01:19
But you see, "solar storm chaser"
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Vejam, "caçador de tempestades solares"
01:22
is not just a cool title.
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não é apenas um título legal.
01:24
My research helps to understand
where they come from,
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Minha pesquisa ajuda
a entender de onde elas vêm,
01:28
how they behave
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como se comportam e, a longo prazo,
01:29
and, in the long run,
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01:31
aims to mitigate their effects
on human societies,
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visa diminuir seus efeitos
sobre a sociedade atual,
01:34
which I'll get to in a second.
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que irei comentar em seguida.
01:37
At the beginning of the space
exploration age 50 years ago only,
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No início da exploração espacial,
há apenas 50 anos,
01:42
the probes we sent in space
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as sondas que enviamos no espaço
01:44
revealed that the planets
in our Solar System
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revelaram que os planetas
em nosso Sistema Solar
01:47
constantly bathe in a stream of particles
that are coming from the Sun
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recebiam constantemente um fluxo
de partículas provenientes do Sol
01:52
and that we call the solar wind.
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e que chamamos de vento solar.
01:55
And in the same way that global wind
patterns here on Earth
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Da mesma forma que os padrões
de ventos globais aqui na Terra
01:59
can be affected by hurricanes,
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podem ser afetados por furacões,
02:01
the solar wind is sometimes
affected by solar storms
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o vento solar, às vezes, é afetado
por tempestades solares,
02:05
that I like to call "space hurricanes."
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que eu gosto de chamar
de "furacões espaciais".
02:09
When they arrive at planets,
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Quando chegam aos planetas,
eles podem perturbar o ambiente do espaço,
02:11
they can perturb the space environment,
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02:13
which in turn creates
the northern or southern lights,
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que, por sua, vez criam
as luzes do norte ou do sul,
02:17
for example, here on Earth,
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aqui na Terra, por exemplo,
também em Saturno
02:19
but also Saturn
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02:21
and also Jupiter.
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e em Júpiter.
02:25
Luckily, here on Earth,
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Felizmente, aqui na Terra,
02:27
we are protected
by our planet's natural shield,
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somos protegidos pelo escudo
natural do nosso planeta,
02:30
a magnetic bubble that we call
the magnetosphere
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uma bolha magnética
que chamamos de magnetosfera,
02:34
and that you can see here
on the right side.
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e que se pode ver aqui à direita.
02:37
Nonetheless, solar storms
can still be responsible
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Por outro lado, as tempestades
solares podem ser responsáveis
02:40
for disrupting satellite
telecommunications and operations,
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pela interrupção das operações
e telecomunicações por satélite,
02:45
for disrupting navigation
systems, such as GPS,
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pela interrupção dos sistemas
de navegação, como o GPS,
02:48
as well as electric power transmission.
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bem como da transmissão
de energia elétrica.
02:51
All of these are technologies
on which us humans rely more and more.
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Todas essas são tecnologias
das quais dependemos cada vez mais.
02:58
I mean, imagine if you woke up tomorrow
without a working cell phone --
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Imaginem acordar sem telefone celular,
03:03
no internet on it,
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sem internet, ou seja,
sem as redes sociais.
03:05
which means no social media.
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03:07
I mean, to me that would be worse
than the zombie apocalypse.
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Para mim, isso seria pior
do que o apocalipse zumbi.
03:10
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
03:12
By constantly monitoring the Sun, though,
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Ao se monitorar constantemente o Sol,
03:14
we now know where
the solar storms come from.
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aprendemos de onde vêm
as tempestades solares.
03:17
They come from regions of the Sun
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Vêm de regiões do Sol
03:19
where a tremendous amount
of energy is being stored.
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onde existe uma enorme
quantidade de energia armazenada.
03:23
You have an example here,
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Vejam este exemplo,
03:24
as a complex structure
hanging above the solar surface,
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uma estrutura complexa
sobre a superfície do sol,
03:28
just on the verge of erupting.
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prestes a entrar em erupção.
03:31
Unfortunately, we cannot send probes
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Infelizmente, não podemos
enviar sondas espaciais
03:34
in the scorching hot
atmosphere of the Sun,
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na atmosfera abrasadora do Sol,
03:38
where temperatures can rise
up to around 10 million degrees Kelvin.
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onde as temperaturas podem
chegar a 10 milhões de graus Kelvin.
03:44
So what I do is I use computer simulations
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A solução é usar simulações de computador
03:48
in order to analyze but also to predict
the behavior of these storms
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para analisar e prever o comportamento
de todas essas tempestades
03:53
when they're just born at the Sun.
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quando elas acabaram
de ser criadas no Sol.
03:57
This is only one part
of the story, though.
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Esta é apenas uma parte da história.
04:01
When these solar storms
are moving in space,
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Quando essas tempestades
solares se movem no espaço,
04:05
some of them will inevitably
encounter space probes
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algumas delas inevitavelmente
encontrarão sondas espaciais
04:08
that we humans have sent
in order to explore other worlds.
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que enviamos ao espaço
para explorar outros mundos.
04:14
What I mean by other worlds is,
for example, planets,
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Outros mundos são, por exemplo, planetas
04:16
such as Venus or Mercury,
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como Vênus ou Mercúrio,
04:19
but also objects, such as comets.
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e também objetos, como os cometas.
04:22
And while these space probes
have been made
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Essas sondas espaciais foram construídas
para diferentes objetivos científicos,
04:25
for different scientific endeavors,
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04:27
they can also act like tiny
cosmic meteorological stations
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mas podem atuar também como pequenas
estações meteorológicas cósmicas
04:33
and monitor the evolution
of these space storms.
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e monitorar a evolução
das tempestades espaciais.
04:36
So I, with a group of researchers,
gather and analyze this data
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Como um grupo de pesquisadores,
reunimos e analisamos esses dados
04:42
coming from different
locations of the Solar System.
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provenientes de diferentes
pontos do Sistema Solar.
04:45
And by doing so, my research
shows that, actually,
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Minha pesquisa mostra que, na verdade,
04:48
solar storms have a generic shape,
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essas tempestades têm uma forma genérica,
04:50
and that this shape evolves
as solar storms move away from the Sun.
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e que esta forma se desenvolve
à medida que elas se afastam do Sol.
04:55
And you know what?
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Querem saber?
04:56
This is key for building tools
to predict space weather.
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É a chave para desenvolver ferramentas
de previsão do tempo do espaço.
05:03
I would like to leave you
with this beautiful image.
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Gostaria de deixá-los
com esta bela imagem.
05:06
This is us here on Earth,
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Somos nós, aqui na Terra,
05:09
this pale blue dot.
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este pálido ponto azul.
05:11
And while I study the Sun
and its storms every day,
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Enquanto estudo o Sol
e suas tempestades todos os dias,
05:15
I will always have a deep love
for this beautiful planet --
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sempre terei um amor profundo
por este lindo planeta,
05:20
a pale blue dot indeed,
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um ponto azul pálido, sim,
05:21
but a pale blue dot
with an invisible magnetic shield
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mas um ponto azul pálido
com um escudo magnético invisível
05:25
that helps to protect us.
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que ajuda a nos proteger.
05:27
Thank you.
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Obrigada.
05:28
(Applause)
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(Aplausos)
Translated by Carl Lenny Homer
Reviewed by Maricene Crus

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Miho Janvier - Space physicist
TED Fellow Miho Janvier studies the the Sun -- in particular the origin of phenomena called "solar storms" which can impact planets in the solar system.

Why you should listen

Miho Janvier is a space physicist at the Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale, France. Her work focuses on the understanding of when solar flares occur, how solar storms travel in space and how they impact planetary environments in the solar system and other star systems. In a nutshell, she works towards a better prediction of "space weather," with a goal of better understanding the influence of the Sun's activity on human societies. She uses data from space missions from NASA, ESA and JAXA as well as develop 3D computer models of solar eruptions.

Janvier is involved as the deputy project scientist on the instrument SPICE as well as a scientific co-Investigator on the instrument EUI on board Solar Orbiter, the next European Space Agency mission to explore the winds and storms coming out from the Sun. Her passion for astrophysics and science communication has led her to partner with the movie production company TreeHouse Digital Ltd to develop a 360 degrees experience of a solar storm using science data and VFX. This video runs in virtual reality headsets such as the Oculus Rift or Youtube 360, with a goal of educating the public about space science.

More profile about the speaker
Miho Janvier | Speaker | TED.com