Two spacecraft have taken a giant leap towards explaining the Suns engimatic heat.
This is because the Suns energy comes from the nuclear furnace in its core.
As the corona is further away from this heat source, logic should dictate that its cooler.
In reality, thats not the case.
The suns surface is onlyaround 6,000 degrees Celcius.
The corona, meanwhile, is a whopping 1 million degrees over 150 times hotter.
To gather further evidence, two spacecraft were needed.
One would conduct remote sensing at a certain distance away from the target.
It would then use cameras to observe the Sun and its atmosphere at different wavelengths.
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As it moved, the satellite would take measurements of particles and magnetic fields in the area.
Alone, each spacecraft could unearth useful clues.
But together, they could paint a fuller picture of whats happening in the plasma.
The ESA-ledSolar Orbiter was primarily assigned remote sensing operations.
The researchers revealed their findings ina study paperpublished this week in Nature Communications.
In the solar corona, the fluid is also magnetised.
As a result, magnetic energy can also be converted into heart.
ESAsproject scientist for the Solar Orbiter, Daniel Muller, hailed the research findings.
This is a scientific first, Muller said in a statement.
This work represents a significant step forward in solving the coronal heating problem.
Story byThomas Macaulay
Thomas is the managing editor of TNW.
He leads our coverage of European tech and oversees our talented team of writers.
Away from work, he e(show all)Thomas is the managing editor of TNW.
He leads our coverage of European tech and oversees our talented team of writers.
Away from work, he enjoys playing chess (badly) and the guitar (even worse).
