Table of Contents
What heats the corona and chromosphere of the Sun?
hydrogen
In the chromosphere, the rising heat causes hydrogen to give off the reddish light seen in the prominences during solar eclipses. And, the corona, which extends for millions of miles beyond the relatively cool photosphere, is even hotter.
What causes the sun’s corona to be so hot?
The Sun’s sizzling corona is so hot thanks to tiny nanoflares, new evidence suggests. Our Sun’s outer atmosphere is mysteriously much hotter than its surface. One possible mechanism is nanoflares: tiny explosions on the solar surface that randomly occur and rapidly dissipate.
Why are the temperatures of the chromosphere and corona so high?
Most solar physicists suspect the process is magnetic, since the strong magnetic fields at the Sun’s surface drive much of the solar weather (including sunspots, coronal loops, prominences, and mass ejections). Such acceleration could bring about the incredibly high temperatures observed in the Sun’s outer atmosphere.
When were the sun’s chromosphere and corona discovered?
English astronomer Norman Lockyer identified the first element unknown on Earth in the Sun’s chromosphere, which was called helium. French astronomer Jules Jenssen noted, after comparing his readings between the 1871 and 1878 eclipses, that the size and shape of the corona changes with the sunspot cycle.
What happens in the chromosphere of the sun?
NASA/Marshall Solar Physics. The chromosphere is an irregular layer above the photosphere where the temperature rises from 6000°C to about 20,000°C. At these higher temperatures hydrogen emits light that gives off a reddish color (H-alpha emission).
What evidence do we have that the chromosphere is hotter than the photosphere?
What evidence do we have that the chromosphere is hotter than the photosphere? Astronomers know that the chromosphere is hotter than the photosphere through observing the amount of ionization. They observe that the chromosphere is hot enough to produce x-rays that can be studied with telescopes.
What does the chromosphere of the sun do?
The layer above the photosphere is the chromosphere. The chromosphere emits a reddish glow as super-heated hydrogen burns off. But the red rim can only be seen during a total solar eclipse. The chromosphere may play a role in conducting heat from the interior of the sun to its outermost layer, the corona.