They've observed the jets before, but there were unfortunately too few observations to get conclusive evidence. One proof could be plasma jets, which scientists expect to be produced by the reconnection process. The Parker Solar probe detected the specific magnetic and. "We need to find proofs that (magnetic reconnection) is really the story" says Gurman. Scientists have estimated that the corona is between 10 to 20 solar radii from the Sun's surface, or around 4.3 to 8.6 million miles. As a direct consequence of this theory, the heating process should occur much closer to the surface of the Sun than previously thought, but no one really knows how close. Experts do not even agree on the approximate length of time these patches remain active. No one has directly observed any magnetic field reconnection. The hottest part of the Sun is its core, where temperatures top 27 million degrees Fahrenheit. Its gravity holds the solar system together, keeping everything from the biggest planets to the smallest bits of debris in orbit around it. The Sun’s volume would need 1.3 million Earths to fill it. It's a faily inefficient source of energy, but the sheer number of these small magnetic patches on the surface of the Sun makes the process a viable solution to the 50 year old problem of what heats the solar corona.Īll is not quite clear yet. The Sun is the largest object in our solar system. Because the laws of electromagnetism prohibit the intersection of two magnetic field lines, every time magnetic field lines come close to crossing they are "rearranged," and this magnetic reconnection continuously heats the solar corona. Now most scientists believe that the heating of the corona is linked to the interaction of the magnetic field lines radiating out of the small patches mentioned above. But there was a problem with that theory: those giant loops disappeared during solar minima, while the corona does not. They thought the heat energy was coming from the active regions, where the spectacular giant loops are seen in Ultra-Violet and X-rays. According to Joseph Gurman, an astrophysicist at the Laboratory for Astronomy and Solar Physics at the Goddard Space Flight Center, people already suspected that magnetic fields were playing an active role in the Solar Corona problem.
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