NASA To Explore "Secret Layer" of the Sun

SpaceAdmiral brings news that NASA will be launching a telescope next April, called Solar Ultraviolet Magnetograph Investigation (SUMI), which will examine what is called the "transition region" between the Sun's corona and the chromosphere. Scientists have studied characteristics of the Sun around this region before, but never within it. NASA notes: "It is a place in the sun's atmosphere, about 5000 km above the stellar surface, where magnetic fields overwhelm the pressure of matter and seize control of the sun's gases. It's where solar flares explode, where coronal mass ejections begin their journey to Earth, where the solar wind is mysteriously accelerated to a million mph. It is, in short, the birthplace of space weather."

Obligatory Weak Joke

I was going to say they should go at night.

Re:Obligatory Weak Joke

I was going to say they should respect the sun's privacy. We shouldn't be investigating parts of the sun where the sun don't shine.

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Won't someone think of the children!

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The Children of the Sun?

I look forward to seeing there ships land one by one...

Secret Layer?

Sun: Welcome to my secret layer, Mr Powers, I've been expecting you.

Solar Probe Plus

It's worth a note that another upcoming NASA mission, Solar Probe Plus [space.com], will actually probe the corona, not just look at it.

See data and reports on Solar Probe Plus [nasa.gov]

Re:Solar Probe Plus

Have we determined that the Sun is definitely not sentient?

Spock: She has sentience, Jim, but not as we know it. I would recommend you not have sex with this one.

Kirk: But Spock, she's so hot!

Spock: Yes, Jim. Too hot.

Kirk: I've yet to meet...

Spock: Don't make me nerve pinch you, Captain.

What if...

They filter out all light and suddenly discover there's a gigantic EULA on the surface of the sun?

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An appropriate comment, considering your nickname.

Layer

Where is Doctor Evil's Secret Volcano Layer?

Traveling to the Secret Sun Layer.

To access the Secret Sun Layer, you must first kill Baal. After you have killed Baal (making sure the quest has been completed), you can access the Secret Sun Layer.

Re:Traveling to the Secret Sun Layer.

To access the Secret Sun Layer, you must first kill Baal. After you have killed Baal (making sure the quest has been completed), you can access the Secret Sun Layer.

Or, for those of us who don't like waiting, up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A will get you there faster.

Probe Me, Please

"It is a place in the sun's atmosphere, about 5000 km above the stellar surface, where magnetic fields overwhelm the pressure of matter and seize control of the sun's gases. It's where solar flares explode, where coronal mass ejections begin their journey to Earth, where the solar wind is mysteriously accelerated to a million mph. It is, in short, the birthplace of space weather."

Did anyone else get aroused reading the summary?

I don't know about the rest of you, but the sun gets me pretty hot.

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"It is a place in the sun's atmosphere, about 5000 km above the stellar surface, where magnetic fields overwhelm the pressure of matter and seize control of the sun's gases. It's where solar flares explode, where coronal mass ejections begin their journey to Earth, where the solar wind is mysteriously accelerated to a million mph. It is, in short, the birthplace of space weather."

Did anyone else get aroused reading the summary?

I don't know about the rest of you, but the sun gets me pretty hot.

Did you have a coronal mass ejection?

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that was terrible, you should be punished.

Cool screen backgrounds

I wonder if they will be able to get some more high resolution images like:

High resolution image of Solar Granulation [solarphysics.kva.se]

And some animations: Sun spot #1 [solarphysics.kva.se] Sun spot #2 [astro.uio.no]

Mysterious, unless...

It would be interesting to see if this supports the electric universe theory, that the sun is not powered by gravity fusion, but is instead a giant Plasma Lamp [thunderbolts.info]. The purpose of the probe is to measure magnetic field lines of the sun from earth's low orbit, and perhaps it can travel far enough in its 8 minutes to detect the radial field lines that the EU theories say must exist...

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The EU book is a collection of half-truths that makes non-sensical claims such as "impact craters are caused by bolts of electricity". If there is ever another book burning fad it should be used to light the bonfire.

Uh, whatever they do,

I hope ithe mission is not at the peak of the Sunspot cycle, as their space vehicle will be turned into individual atoms floating in space.

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Doesn't matter as long as I don't have to be you.

Reminds me of an interesting site

The Surface of the Sun [thesurfaceofthesun.com]. Viewed using a 171 angstrom filter, the sun appears to actually have a solid surface beneath the gas layers. It also seems to be electrically active. This is one of the more fascinating astronomy sites I've seen, mainly because they don't seem to start with a bias of "what we know can't be so". That always appeals to me, especially since "what we know is 100% impossible" is something that's been proven wrong, again and again, although that doesn't seem to stop anyone from asserting that this time we really have it right.

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very interesting site, and layman friendly; it contains a link to a peer reviewed paper that is a good read and very understandable:
http://arxiv.org/ftp/astro-ph/papers/0511/0511379.pdf [arxiv.org]
The papers states:
a) The Sun and other stars act as plasma diffusers, sorting lighter atoms to their surfaces.

b) The interior of the Sun is made of common elements in rocky planets and meteorites â" Fe, Ni, O, Si, and S â" although the lightest elements (H and He) cover its surface.

c) Neutron-emission from

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Warning, Electric Universe theory mentioned and referenced, as well as Plasma and Thunderbolt themes.

Pretty pictures though.

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electric currents on the sun are a given (its a big ball of plasma), whether or not the sun gets its power from inter-galactic Birkland currents (which this site makes no such claim) has yet to be proven or dis-proven.

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I wish I could mod you up. The anti-knee-jerk is another thing I always appreciate.