NASA To Explore "Secret Layer" of the Sun 75
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."
Re:Sounds hot (Score:1, Informative)
Solar Probe Plus (Score:5, Informative)
See data and reports on Solar Probe Plus [nasa.gov]
Re:Reminds me of an interesting site (Score:2, Informative)
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 the solar core, a neutron star, is the first step in a series of reactions that has steadily generated luminosity, neutrinos, solar mass fractionation, and an out-pouring of solar-wind hydrogen from the Sun over the past 4-5 Gy.
Re:Reminds me of an interesting site (Score:3, Informative)
Warning, Electric Universe theory mentioned and referenced, as well as Plasma and Thunderbolt themes.
Pretty pictures though.
Re:Reminds me of an interesting site (Score:2, Informative)
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.