Loops can be seen connecting the active areas. Red indicates regions with high temperatures and activity, blue and green for colder areas. How do we know how hot it is? False-color 3-layer composite from the TRACE satellite, showing the solar corona for a “moderately active Sun”. The main component of the heliosphere is magnetic, and it has a key part to play in forming the Sun’s shield around our solar system. While emissions such as solar winds or flares can send super-heated, charged particles flying off from a star into its heliosphere, this is much cooler than the layers we’ve discussed previously. The corona might be so hot due to ‘ nanoflares‘, but we’re still unsure.īeyond the corona lies the Sun’s extended atmosphere, the heliosphere, which is less of a layer per se and more of an area of influence that the Sun exerts. This is less of a hard boundary and more of a chaotic, ever-churning sea of clouds. The corona and chromatosphere are kept separated from this layer by a transition zone of highly-ionized helium atoms. These range between 1 million ☌ and 10 million ☌ (roughly 1.7 – 17 million ☏), according to the National Solar Observatory (NSO). In fact, it has average temperatures at the same order of magnitude as the core, although they are still lower. A bit unexpectedly, temperatures shoot back up in this layer, despite it being the farthest away from the core. Lastly, there is the corona - the Sun’s crown. We know these two layers exist because their relatively mellow conditions allow for simple molecules such as water and carbon monoxide to survive, and we’ve picked up on their spectral emissions. In relative terms, temperatures in the photo- and chromatosphere aren’t that high - a candle, for example, burns at around 1,000 ☌ (1,800 ☏).
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