Indian solar mission's new findings throw light on enduring Sun mysteries
Summary
Indian scientists have studied the Sun using data from Aditya-L1, India's first space mission to observe the Sun. They found new clues explaining why the Sun’s outer atmosphere, called the corona, is much hotter than its surface and how it stays hot even after releasing large amounts of energy during solar eruptions.Key Facts
- The Sun’s core is about 15 million degrees Celsius, the surface about 5,500 degrees, and the corona about 2 million degrees but can reach up to 40 million degrees.
- The corona is the origin of solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which release huge amounts of energy into space.
- CMEs cause auroras on Earth and can disrupt power grids, weather, and satellites.
- The Sun releases 2-3 CMEs daily at low activity and up to 10 or more during peak activity every 11 years.
- Despite the large energy loss from CMEs, the corona remains extremely hot due to two main processes.
- One process involves waves generated by bubbling motions on the Sun’s surface that carry energy outward like waves carrying foam to shore.
- The other, more important process, is the snapping and reconnecting of tangled magnetic field lines, which quickly restore lost energy.
- The research quantified how much energy each process provides and found the magnetic field reconnection supplies most of the corona’s heat.
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