Heating the solar wind
Wednesday, April 3, 2013 - 07:30
in Astronomy & Space
(Phys.org) —The Sun glows with a surface temperature of about 5500 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile its hot outer layer (the corona) has a temperature of over a million degrees, and ejects a wind of charged particles at a rate equivalent to about one-millionth of the moon's mass each year. Some of these wind particles bombard the Earth, producing radio static, auroral glows, and (in extreme cases) disrupted global communications.