However, the solar surface has very strong and tremendously complicated magnetic fields. The Sun has a very weak overall magnetic field (average dipole field). (Phooto Credit : NH2501 / Wikimedia Commons) However, the results indicated that the waves only contributed 10% to the estimated temperature of the atmosphere. It was then the first platform capable of observing the Sun in the extreme UV for prolonged periods with astute photometric equipment. The first observation of any such waves propagating into and through the corona was made by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory space-borne solar observatory around 1997. In this way, the waves can carry energy through the atmosphere before transitioning into shock waves that dissipate the energy as heat.ĭespite their erratic behavior, researcher Thomas Bogdan and his colleagues have performed simulations and shown that Alfven waves can transmute into other wave modes at the base of the corona, clearing the way for large amounts of energy from the photosphere through to the atmosphere, where it dissipates as heat. However, any substantial or direct evidence to support this hypothesis is yet to be gathered.
A heated fluid transfers its heat across different colder regions by means of convection currents by moving in their vicinity. Solar thermal columns are similar to thermal columns found on Earth - heat on the ground rises towards the air in columns. So, the Sun isn’t just exceedingly hot, but now it’s also incredibly loud? Great.īoth categories of waves can be released by the formation of thermal columns and consequent convection currents that ramble deep in the photosphere. The former, as the name sounds, is a sound wave that is influenced by a magnetic field, whereas the latter is a type of ultra-low frequency radio wave that is modified by the interaction with unconventional matter in the plasma. The most prominent of them are magneto-acoustic waves and Alfven waves.
Plasma tends to permit a number of waves, analogous to sound waves in air, through its mawkish form. (Photo Credit : Kelvin13 / Wikimedia Commons) The two most notable of them seem to be the Wave heating theory and the eruption of Nano flares as the result of magnetic reconnections. So what accounts for this bewildering phenomenon? Scientists have managed to come up with a few potential answers. The unsolvable problem is formally known as the problem of solar coronal heat, as the atmosphere is named Corona - Latin for a crown. To say that the atmosphere is hotter than the surface is tantamount to the surrounding air being hotter than the bulb itself. The law prevents the flow of heat from the blazing surface to the atmosphere. To put it in the right perspective, this oddity violates the 2 nd Law of Thermodynamics – one of the most fundamental laws of the universe! To merely say that the phenomenon defies “logic” is an understatement and somehow denies the sense of dismay it rightfully deserves. The phenomenon has baffled cosmologists since we first discovered this illogical disparity.
The sun’s atmosphere burns at a temperature of 100 to 400 times more than its surface! Logically, one would expect that the temperature decreases as we move away from the core, towards the surface, similar to the lessening of warmth as we move away from a writhing flame. Also, due to the absence of oxygen and severe cancerous incineration… but most importantly, ice cream. Temperatures at the core of our home star can reach an astounding 15 million Kelvin! At the photosphere - the surface that is visible to us - the temperature is a bit less, yet still boasts a mammoth – up to 5800 Kelvin. Therefore, existence in its proximity, if plausible, would be tremendously distressing due to the unavailability or rather unlikelihood of Popsicles and cold sodas. The sun’s atmosphere is hotter than its surface because of the wave heating theory and the eruption of nano flares as the result of magnetic reconnections.Īccording to NASA’s estimates, the Sun is so excruciatingly hot that it is capable of melting a slab of ice 2 miles long and 1 mile wide in less than a second!
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