News in Brief Astronomy

Some of sun’s magnetic fields may act more like forests

Surface energy ripples up the ‘tree’ trunks and heats the corona, new study suggests

solar corona

ENERGY HALO  The solar corona, seen during a 2008 eclipse (colors show emissions from different iron ions), envelops the disk of the sun in this composite image.

T. Amari/École Polytechnique, S.Habbal and M. DruckMuller

By Christopher Crockett

- More than 2 years ago

Treelike magnetic fields, deeply rooted within the sun and stretching far into its atmosphere, might explain why the solar corona is millions of degrees hotter than the sun’s surface.