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Solar Tadpole-like Jets seen with NASA’S IRIS add new clue to age-old mystery

Images from IRIS show the tadpole-shaped jets containing pseudo-shocks streaking out from the Sun (see animated GIF).
Credit: Abhishek Srivastava IIT (BHU)/Joy Ng, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Scientists have discovered tadpole-shaped jets coming out of regions with intense magnetic fields on the Sun. Unlike those living on Earth, these “tadpoles” – formally called pseudo-shocks – are made entirely of plasma, the electrically conducting material made of charged particles that account for an estimated 99% of the observable universe. The discovery adds a new clue to one of the longest-standing mysteries in astrophysics.

For 150 years scientists have been trying to figure out why the wispy upper atmosphere of the Sun – the corona is over 200 times hotter than the solar surface...

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