2, but only spark a few hours of auroras. The CME is expected to reach Earth on Wednesday, Feb.Astronomers are tracking a coronal mass ejection (CME), which consists of burst of gas and magnetic fields stemming from the sun.Eventually, the sun will run out of fuel. You can learn more about solar flares by reading Could an extremely powerful solar flare destroy all the electronics on Earth?Īll of this activity requires energy, which is in limited supply. These power surges can overload a power grid and cause blackouts. The ionized particles in the atmosphere can induce electric currents in power lines and cause power surges. The radiation and particles ionize the atmosphere and prevent the movement of radio waves between satellites and the ground or between the ground and the ground. Solar flares can also disrupt communications, satellites, navigation systems and even power grids. When this radiation and these particles reach the Earth's magnetic field, they interact with it at the poles to produce the auroras (borealis and australis). They're accompanied by the release of gas, electrons, visible light, ultraviolet light and X-rays. Solar flares are thought to be caused by sudden magnetic field changes in areas where the sun's magnetic field is concentrated. Sometimes in complex sunspot groups, abrupt, violent explosions from the sun occur. Upon reaching this height, they can erupt for a few minutes to hours and send large amounts of material racing through the corona and outward into space at 600 miles per second (1,000 kilometers per second) these eruptions are called coronal mass ejections. Prominences can last two to three months and can extend 30,000 miles (50,000 kilometers) or more above the sun's surface. These arches of gas are called solar prominences. Occasionally, clouds of gases from the chromosphere will rise and orient themselves along the magnetic lines from sunspot pairs. When they reach the equator, they break up and sunspots decline. When they roll against each other, they form spots. Huge tubes of gas circle the sun's interior at high latitudes and begin to move toward the equator.Eventually, the field lines break apart and sunspot activity decreases. The twisted field lines break through the surface forming sunspot pairs. Uneven rotation of the sun distorts and twists magnetic field lines in the interior.Let's take a look at three of them: sunspots, solar prominences and solar flares. Through telescope images we can see several interesting features on the sun that can have effects here on Earth. Coronal holes are relatively cool and are thought to be areas where particles of the solar wind escape. The corona has bright areas (hot) and dark areas called coronal holes. Although no one is sure why the corona is so hot, it is thought to be caused by the sun's magnetism. The temperature of the corona averages 2 million degrees Kelvin. It can be seen best during a solar eclipse and in X-ray images of the sun. The corona is the final layer of the sun and extends several million miles or kilometers outward from the other spheres. Spicules may also follow along magnetic field lines of the sun, which are made by the movements of gases inside the sun. Each spicule rises to approximately 3,000 miles (5,000 kilometers) above the photosphere and lasts only a few minutes. As gases churn in the photosphere, they produce shock waves that heat the surrounding gas and send it piercing through the chromosphere in millions of tiny spikes of hot gas called spicules. The chromosphere is thought to be heated by convection within the underlying photosphere. The temperature rises across the chromosphere from 4,500 degrees Kelvin to about 10,000 degrees Kelvin. The chromosphere extends above the photosphere to about 1,200 miles (2,000 kilometers). Therefore, the outer edge of the photosphere looks dark, an effect called limb darkening that accounts for the clear crisp edge of the sun's surface. This makes them less opaque to the human eye. As we pass up through the photosphere, the temperature drops and the gases, because they are cooler, do not emit as much light energy. The bumps are the upper surfaces of the convection current cells beneath each granulation can be 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) wide. It appears granulated or bubbly, much like the surface of a simmering pot of water. It is 180-240 miles (300-400 kilometers wide) and has an average temperature of 5,800 degrees Kelvin. "The surface of the sun" typically refers to the photosphere, at least in lay terms.
The photosphere is the lowest region of the sun's atmosphere and is the region that we can see. However, the sun's is composed of the photosphere, the chromosphere and the corona. Just like Earth, the sun boasts an atmosphere. We've finally made our way to the surface.
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