In Five-Minute Journey, Flying Telescope Cracks Mystery Of Solar Atmosphere
Solar Corona This is one of the highest-resolution images ever taken of the solar corona, or outer atmosphere. It was captured by NASA's High Resolution Coronal Imager, Hi-C, in the ultraviolet wavelength of 19.3 nanometers. Solar magnetic fields are constantly warping, twisting, and colliding in bursts of energy. Taken together, those energy bursts can boost the temperature of the corona to 7 million degrees Fahrenheit when the Sun is particularly active. NASA/CfAA flying telescope saw "magnetic braids" at a resolution of 0.2 arcseconds - about the size of a dime seen from 10 miles away. People like to joke, when it's really hot, that it's "like the surface of the sun or something." People should not say that. They should say it's like the atmosphere of the sun, which is way hotter. The solar corona is around 2 to 4 million degrees Fahrenheit, and it gets hotter as you move farther...