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New Solar Telescope Unveils the Complex Dynamics of Sunspots' Dark Cores
An anonymous reader writes: The high-resolution images, taken by the New Solar Telescope (NST), show the atmosphere above the umbrae (the dark patches in the center of sunspots) to be finely structured, consisting of hot plasma intermixed with cool plasma jets as wide as 100 kilometers. These ground breaking images are being captured by scientists at NJIT's Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO). Sunspots are formed when strong magnetic fields rise up from the convection zone, a region beneath the photosphere that transfers energy from the interior of the Sun to its surface. At the surface, the magnetic fields concentrate into bundles, which prevent the hot rising plasma from reaching the surface. This energy deficit causes the magnetic bundles to cool down to temperatures about 1,000 degrees lower than their surroundings. The NST takes snapshots of the Sun every 10 seconds, which are then strung together as a video to reveal fast-evolving small explosions, plasma flows and the movement of magnetic fields.
Does anybody have a link to the video that they mention in the article?
Wherever You Go, There You Are
But the impossible mission of how the heat comes from the centre, and skips the relatively cool surface, to somehow end up as millions of degrees above, just makes no sense at all
It doesn't make sense to *us*, the popular science reading public. But does it make sense to the actual scientists?
And even if it doesn't make sense to them, so what? That's why they built the New Solar Telescope!! To, you know, learn new things and make better hypotheses.
I know the Electric Universe offers a very plausible explanation
Now we know you're either (1) a crank, or (2) terribly young and naive.
I was wondering if other people had their own views, or theories they'd like to share.
Anyone who "shares" (such a *compassionate* word :eyeroll:) their expertise in the subject and is not an actual solar scientist is either a blowhard, a crank, or both.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
Solar scientists are unable to explain these temperature differences. The American Astronomical Society recently had a gathering (http://aas.org/meetings/tess2015/) where evidence was presented about yet another conjured-up feature/explanation: "nano-flares" in an attempt to explain the unexplainable. Solar scientists still mention magnetic reconnection as a possible mechanism. The electric universe group suggest more weight be given to observational evidence instead of mathematical constructs. That perhaps gravity is not the only force actively shaping the cosmos. Instead of resorting to more bizarre phenomena such as dark matter/ dark energy, WIMPS, and so on - created mathematically to decipher the unknown - to make-it-fit in a gravity-only schema that electricity, evidence of which is acknowledged to be present in space is not a benign force. Instead of dismissing the electrical universe theory with derogatory hateful words simply agree to disagree.
The electric universe group suggest more weight be given to observational evidence instead of mathematical constructs.
But "math stuff" and "bizarre phenomena" sure have worked so far. That computer you wrote that from, for example, wouldn't be as small nor fast as it is without an understanding of the bizarre mathematical phenomenon know as quantum mechanics.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
Solar scientists are unable to explain these temperature differences.
No, the problem is they have multiple explanation as are not quite sure which one works best.
Solar scientists still mention magnetic reconnection as a possible mechanism.
Because observation still continue to support it as a potential mechanism, both directly in the atmosphere of the Sun, and now in laboratory experiments.
The electric universe group suggest more weight be given to observational evidence instead of mathematical constructs.
Except in this case you are talking about observational evidence, as observation continues to support the presence of things like reconnection and Alfven waves.
And I don't see much acknowledgement of lack of observation of electric and magnetic fields in measurements where EU theories would require large currents.
That perhaps gravity is not the only force actively shaping the cosmos.
This seems like a non sequitur in this case, because this is a case that has been attributed to plasma physics since its inception. It is funny how often I've seen some EU promoters deny the use of plasma physics in even direct plasma physics topics though. I've seen them at plasma physics conferences in astrophysics talks, that they later will continue to claim that astrophysicists don't consider plasma effects.
Instead of dismissing the electrical universe theory with derogatory hateful words simply agree to disagree.
Agreeing to disagree would be a nice way to go, although it seems it is very rare for EU proponents to not put words in the mouths of other astrophysicists.