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The Secret of the Sun's Heated Atmosphere

Posted by kdawson on from the ooh-shiny dept.

eldavojohn writes "There has long been speculation on why the Sun's surface is a mere ten thousand degrees while the atmosphere can reach millions. Space.com is reporting that the mystery has now been solved. Researchers looked for Alfven waves in the solar chromosphere and found them. Followup studies employing simulations demonstrated that the energetics work out to transfer energy from the Sun's surface to its overlying corona.. The magnetic waves may also be the power source behind the solar wind."

6 of 158 comments (clear)

  1. Did anybody else think... by tekiegreg · · Score: 3, Funny

    When I saw that article, I couldn't help but think "Damn that's a hot data center, glad I'm not running any of their servers :-) " then again if someone were truly able to get a computer running at that temperature, maybe they're worth considering...

    --
    ...in bed
    1. Re:Did anybody else think... by SleptThroughClass · · Score: 5, Funny

      Imagine a Milky Way cluster of these...

    2. Re:Did anybody else think... by KublaiKhan · · Score: 2, Funny

      So -that's- why the tundra's been melting...

      --
      In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
      A stately pleasure dome decree
  2. Ah... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...but does it run solaris?

  3. Let's get it out of the way... by SkunkWorx · · Score: 2, Funny

    ALFVEN!!!

  4. This is no mystery. by snarfies · · Score: 2, Funny

    The sun is a mass of incandescent gas - a gigantic nuclear furnace, where hydrogen is fused into helium at a temperature of millions of degrees. Scientists have found that the sun is a huge atom-smashing machine. The heat and light of the sun come from the nuclear reactions of hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and helium.