Walk carefully over to a fire and you'll find it gets hotter the closer you get. As you walk away you start to feel cooler again. But if you were to do that at the surface of the Sun, the opposite would happen. You'd walk away from the intense heat, start to feel cooler and then suddenly begin to feel hot again. Moving far away from this hot source only puts you in the midst of an even hotter upper atmosphere. Although the Sun's surface burns at a blisteringly hot 6,000 degrees Celsius (10,800 degrees Fahrenheit), the outermost layer of our host star's atmosphere - which extends thousands of miles above the visible surface reaches temperatures of around 1 to 2 million degrees Celsius (1.8 to 3.6 million degrees Fahrenheit). It's a mystery that's perplexed scientists around the world for decades. Just what is heating the atmosphere to such extreme temperatures? Numerous theories have emerged, each seeking to shed light on the corona's physical properties and how they've come to be. But while the debate rages on, with a number of different promising ideas, astronomers may now be closer to an answer than ever before.
Denne historien er fra Issue 130-utgaven av All About Space.
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Denne historien er fra Issue 130-utgaven av All About Space.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
15 AUTUMN STARGAZING TARGETS
Go on a night-sky treasure hunt as the brighter evenings give way to the cooler months
MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE WHY IS VENUS SO DRY?
A new study reckons the answer lies high in the Venusian atmosphere
WHEN BLACK HOLES TURN WHITE
Can bouncing black holes help physicists find the ultimate theory of everything?
THE MOON'S THIN ATMOSPHERE IS MADE BY CONSTANT METEORITE BOMBARDMENT
While the solar wind also contributes to the atmosphere, meteorites are the main culprit
INTERSTELLAR TRAVEL AND HOW TO BECOME A SPACE TOURIST
Having explored much of the Solar System, attention is now turning to the stars beyond
NASA'S PERSEVERANCE ROVER FINDS POSSIBLE SIGNS OF ANCIENT RED PLANET LIFE
Further analysis is needed, but a rock contains potential evidence that life once existed on Mars in the distant past
A NASA TELESCOPE MAY HAVE FOUND ANTIMATTER ANNIHILATING IN POSSIBLY THE BIGGEST EXPLOSION SINCE THE BIG BANG
The massive explosion was captured in 2022
Jameel Janjua "This is how we get to Mach 3”
Jameel Janjua made it to the bitter end in a Canadian government astronaut selection in 2009, but wasn't chosen. He found a different path to space through Virgin Galactic
BOEING NEEDS TO IMPROVE QUALITY CONTROL ON THE SLS MOON ROCKET
The NASA Inspector General's report finds serious quality-control issues affecting the upgraded version and expects cost overruns and delays
DARK ENERGY
THE MOST DOMINANT FORCE IN THE UNIVERSE IS ALSO ITS MOST MYSTERIOUS AND MOST UNANTICIPATED