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Solar Flares
The amount of energy released by a solar flare is ten million times more than released by a giant volcanic explosion, or more than a million 100-megaton hydrogen bombs all blowing up at the same time. Solar flares occur when built up magnetic energy in the Sun is suddenly released. The first recorded instance in the astronomical literature was in 1859 when two scientists were observing sunspots and viewed a large flare of white light. Now all this energy pales when we consider that the total energy the Sun releases every second is ten times that much. Flares extend out to the layer of the sun called the corona. The corona is the outermost atmosphere of the sun and is composed of rarefied gas. It is hot, several million the degrees Kelvin. The interior of a flare can reach 100 million K. Flares are most prevalent during the Sun's 11 year cycle and occur near sunspots. They usually occur along the dividing line between two oppositely directed magnetic fields. NASA and the European Space Agency are finally doing a lot of study of our nearest star. This delights the Plasma Universe group as more and more information is being uncovered to support their position. The NASA site has great colored pictures and even a 4.2MB movie. |