Super-heated gas drifting in eerie wisps across the surface of the Sun
is caught on camera by Japan’s Hinode observatory
Super-heated
gas drifting in eerie wisps across the surface of the Sun
is caught on camera by Japan’s Hinode observatory.
Formerly
known as Solar-B,
the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Hinode used its optical
telescope to snap this view of the Sun’s surface during a study that may have
the heat source for the star’s
atmosphere.
This image
shows a view of the Sun’s chromosphere, a thin layer that lies between the star’s
visible surface, photosphere and extremely
hot corona. Wisps of filamentary plasma connect regions of differing
magnetic polarity. [View
the anatomy of the Sun.]
Researchers
believe that twisting magnetic fields could give the Sun’s outer atmosphere -- the
corona -- a jolt of energy, heating it up to 100 times that of the solar
surface, which can reach temperatures of about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5,538
degrees Celsius).
The
super-heating energy may be the force behind the Sun’s powerful coronal
mass ejections and solar
eruptions.
Launched on
Sept. 22, 2006, Hinode is flying a three-year mission to study the Sun. In
addition to this optical view, Hinodoe also used its X-ray telescope to study
the twisted magnetic structures on the solar surface [image
1, image
2].
-- SPACE.com Staff
Credit: Hinode JAXA/NASA.
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