Coronal Heating Problem tagged posts

The further we move away from a heat source, the cooler the air gets. Bizarrely, the same can’t be said for the Sun, but University of Otago scientists may have just explained a key part of why.

Study lead Dr Jonathan Squire, of the Department of Physics, says the surface of the Sun starts at 6000 degree C, but over a short distance of only a few hundred kilometers, it suddenly heats up to more than a million degrees, becoming its atmosphere, or corona.

“This is so hot that the gas escapes the Sun’s gravity as ‘solar wind’, and flies into space, smashing into Earth and other planets.

“We know from measurements and theory that the sudden temperature ju...

For reference, an image of the entire Sun taken by SDO/AIA in extreme ultra-violet light (false color). (Right) An image of a solar prominence at the limb of the Sun taken by Hinode/SOT in visible light (Ca II H line, false color). As shown in the image, a prominence is composed of long, thin structures called threads. A scale model of the Earth is shown on the right for reference. Credit: Image courtesy of National Institutes of Natural Sciences

Solar physicists have captured the 1st direct observational signatures of resonant absorption, thought to play an important role in solving the ‘coronal heating problem’ which has defied explanation for over 70 years...