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RECENTLY released images of the Sun show it in the highest resolution and is quite impressive.
The snapshots reveal spots on the Sun’s surface that are filled with hot strands of plasma.
The images also show that the Sun’s atmosphere is much more complex than previously thought.
They were taken by NASA’s Coronal Imager (Hi-C) high-resolution space telescope.
Researchers at the University of Central Lancashire and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center studied the shots.
They discovered that sections of the Sun’s atmosphere that were previously believed to be dark or empty are actually filled with hundreds of kilometers of strands of hot electrified gases.
Each strand is said to have a temperature of up to 1.8 million degrees Fahrenheit (999982. ° C).
They are also so large that they are larger than the distance between London and Belfast.
What created the threads remains unclear.
The telescope that captured the images was taken into space on a suborbital rocket.
He then captured an image of the Sun every second before returning to Earth.
Dr. Amy Winebarger, principal investigator of Hi-C at NASA MSFC stated: “These new Hi-C images give us a remarkable insight into the Sun’s atmosphere.
“Along with ongoing missions such as Probe and SolO, this fleet of space-based instruments in the near future will reveal the Sun’s dynamic outer shell in a whole new light.”
Future research will now analyze how stands are formed and what their presence means.
They could also provide a better understanding of how the Sun relates to Earth.
Tom Williams, a postdoctoral researcher at UCLan who worked on the Hi-C data, said: “This is a fascinating discovery that could better inform our understanding of the flow of energy through the Sun’s layers and ultimately toward Earth. same.
“This is very important if we want to model and predict the behavior of our life-giving star.”
Robert Walsh, professor of solar physics at UCLan, added: “Until now, solar astronomers have been effectively seeing our nearest star in ‘standard definition’.
“The exceptional quality of the data provided by the Hi-C telescope allows us to examine a patch of the Sun in ‘ultra high definition’ for the first time.”
The study has been published in the Astrophysical Journal.
The Sun: all the facts you need to know
What is it, why does it exist, and why is it so hot all the time?
- The Sun is a great star that lives in the center of our solar system.
- It is an almost perfect sphere of hot plasma, and provides most of the energy for life on Earth.
- It measures an amazing 865,000 miles wide, making it 109 times larger than Earth
- But its weight is 330,000 times greater than that of Earth, and it represents almost all the mass in the Solar System.
- The Sun is primarily made up of hydrogen (73%), helium (25%), and then a host of other elements like oyxgen, carbon, and iron.
- Its surface temperature is around 5,505C
- Scientists describe the Sun as “middle-aged”
- The Sun was formed 4.6 billion years ago, and has been in its current state for about four billion years.
- It is expected to remain stable for another five billion years.
- It doesn’t have enough mass to explode like a supernova
- Instead, we hope it becomes a giant red giant
- During this phase, it will be so large that it will engulf Mercury, Venus, and Earth.
- Eventually it will become an incredibly hot white dwarf, and it will stay that way for billions of years.
In other news, NASA has awarded some new grants for innovative space projects.
The closest image of a violent jet coming out of a supermassive black hole has been revealed.
And, a large 2-mile asteroid will be visible from Earth this month.
What do you think of the threads of the sun? Let us know in the comments …
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