Free Republic

LONDON: Scientists have detected vast turbulent waves in the sun's lower atmosphere that at a time spew the energy equivalent of 10 billion nuclear warheads. Queen's University Belfast (QUB) scientists with researchers from the Universities of Sheffield and California State, have shed some light on why the corona, the region around the sun, has a much higher temperature than its surface - something of a puzzle to scientists. Their discovery has revealed the existence of a new breed of solar waves, called the Alfven wave, known to transport energy into the corona. The surface of the sun, known as the...

HEAT WAVEThe Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope captured this image of an approximately 8,000 kilometer by 8,000 km region on the sun’s surface. Scientists observed Alfvén waves oscillating from the bright spot near the middle of the image, a highly magnetized area.D. JessMagnetic waves theorized to transfer heat from the surface of the sun to its atmosphere have been directly observed for the first time, researchers report in the March 20 Science. Astrophysicists have long puzzled over why the sun’s atmosphere is millions of degrees hotter than the surface of the sun itself. “It’s counterintuitive — when you hold your...