Coronal Loops, TRACE Image
Fountains of multimillion-degree, electrified gas in the atmosphere of the Sun have revealed the location where the solar atmosphere is heated to temperatures 300 times greater than the Sun's visible surface. Scientists discovered this important clue for solving the long-standing mystery of the hot solar atmosphere while observing the coronal loops in unprecedented detail with NASA's TRACE spacecraft. Scientists are interested in the Sun's outer atmosphere, called the corona, because eruptive events occurring in this region can disrupt high-technology systems on Earth. The gas fountains form arches as gas emerges from the solar surface, is heated and rises while flowing along the solar magnetic field, then cools and crashes back to the surface at more than 60 miles per second. Millions of different-sized arches, called coronal loops, comprise the corona. This image is a false color picture of ultraviolet light emitted by the hot gas that comprises the coronal loops. Ultraviolet light is invisible to the human eye, but detectable by the special instruments on board TRACE. White represents the brightest ultraviolet light. Earth is shown as a comparison.
Size: 3900px × 2633px
Photo credit: © Photo Researchers / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: -type, activity, astronomical, astronomy, body, celestial, coronal, deep, dwarf, explorer, g2v, heavenly, image, loops, magnetic, main, main-sequence, object, region, science, sequence, sky, soho, solar, space, star, sun, surface, trace, transition, yellow
