The Solar Conora: Let He Who Has Eyes See

I started following Mythbusters on Twitter–literally the only tweets I follow–and they led me this afternoon to this exquisitely beautiful picture of a solar corona, via Discovery News:

Here, according to Discovery News, is what a solar corona is, exactly:

The solar corona is the magnetically dominated atmosphere of the sun, reaching millions of miles into space. Paradoxically, the corona is many times hotter than the solar ‘surface’ (the photosphere) and solar physicists are currently trying to understand why this is the case.

The photosphere has an average temperature of approximately 6000 degrees Celsius, whereas the corona can be millions of degrees Celsius. This is analogous to the air surrounding a hot light bulb being hotter than the bulb itself; in reality, the air surrounding the bulb is cooler than the bulb’s glass surface, and it gets cooler the further you move your hand away.

Interesting astronomy, to be sure. But sometimes I think the only reason I have eyes is so I can witness wonders like this.

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It’s even more astounding ‘live’: that’s why I have become an ardent total solar eclipse chaser, after one of my best friends convinced me to check one out in Zambia back in 2001.

There’s a total solar eclipse in the USA on August 21, 2017 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Solar_eclipse_global_visibility_2017Aug21T.png ): do check it out if and when you can. I hope to be there!

February 17th, 2010

Jetse