NASA To Explore Secret Layer of the Sun

[junglelord]

Next April, for a grand total of 8 minutes, NASA astronomers are going to glimpse a secret layer of the sun.

Researchers call it "the transition region." It is a place in the sun's atmosphere, about 5000 km above the stellar surface, where magnetic fields overwhelm the pressure of matter and seize control of the sun's gases. It's where solar flares explode, where coronal mass ejections begin their journey to Earth, where the solar wind is mysteriously accelerated to a million mph.

It is, in short, the birthplace of space weather.

Researchers hope it is about to yield its secrets.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/05sep_sumi.htm

[MGmirkin]

I was going to create a separate thread, but figured I'd throw this in here, since it's related...

(Solar Wind Flows From Magnetic Funnels on the Sun)
http://www.universetoday.com/2005/04/22 ... n-the-sun/

(Solar Wind Origin in Coronal Funnels )
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/hotshots/2005_04_22/

(Solar Wind Origin in Coronal Funnels)
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object ... ctid=36998

(Solar Wind Origin Regions)
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object ... ctid=37003

(Solar Wind Origin in Coronal Funnels)
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/a ... 8/5721/519

So... Giant magnetic "funnels," eh?

Wonder what an EE would say about that? Too bad they didn't put any arrows on their diagrams to indicate magnetic field line directions... Would be handy for figuring out which way the currents are flowing. Ohh, did I say currents? Must have slipped my mind to translate into astronomer-speak "flows of charged particles, along field lines, in a 'reconnection region'..." Hehe. How's my astro-gibberish?

Anyway... Here's a few diagrams of current vs magnetic field. Does it stand to reason that it we see a similar magnetic field "funnel" that a current can be inferred flowing through it (one way or the other, depending on the direction of the magnetic field)?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_c ... omagnetism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Electromagnetism.svg

http://www.peter-thomson.co.uk/tornado/ ... rnado.html
http://www.peter-thomson.co.uk/tornado/ ... urrent.gif

Regards,
~Michael Gmirkin