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Discovery of nanoflares solves sun’s coronal heat mystery

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  • 30-04-2015 1:19am
    #1
    _Tombstone_
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,006 ✭✭✭


    What has long remained a major question for astronomers – the significant jump in the temperature of the sun’s corona in comparison to its visible surface – may have been solved by NASA scientists. A new theory suggests the heat source may be nanoflares.

    The solar corona is a thin aura of plasma with the temperature exceeding that at the surface by about 300 times, extending millions of kilometers into space. Astronomers have been dazzled by this mystery for a long time.

    NASA astronomers used a sounding rocket, a black-hole-hunting telescope and computer modeling to study the phenomenon. They have found that the corona is heated by tiny explosions called nanoflares.

    Millions of Nanoflares going off every second on the surface, each one equivalent to the biggest nuke we've ever set off.

    The surface is 5500° C, the centre is 2million ° C and a nanoflare is hotter still.


    Sure, ya couldn't get your head around those numbers at all.


    http://rt.com/news/254141-sun-coronal-heating-theory/
    http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2015/04/29/the_sun_s_corona_nanoflares_responsible_for_solar_heating.html


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