In 2016, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory and the Solar Heliospheric Observatory observed a large "missing link" explosion on the sun. Solar Orbiter (opens in new tab) mission could be behind the mysterious heating of the sun's corona (opens in new tab). Recent research suggests that solar "campfires" - miniature solar flares discovered by the European-U.S. "Based on the detected events, we estimate that at least 11,000 swirls are present on the sun at all times," Sven Wedemeyer-Böhm, a solar scientist at the University of Oslo in Norway and lead author of the team that identified tornados on the sun, told (opens in new tab). These solar twisters are a combination of hot-flowing gas and tangled magnetic field lines, ultimately driven by nuclear reactions in the solar core. Giant super-tornados may also play a role in heating the sun's outer layer. Millions of them are going off every second across the sun, and collectively they heat the corona." "Despite being tiny by solar standards, each packs the wallop of a 10-megaton hydrogen bomb. "The explosions are called nanoflares because they have one-billionth the energy of a regular flare," Jim Klimchuk, a solar scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (opens in new tab) in Maryland, said in a statement. Research suggests that tiny explosions known as nanoflares may help push the temperature up by providing sporadic bursts reaching up to 18 million F (10 million C). When you're roasting a marshmallow you move it closer to the fire to cook it, not farther away." "Things usually get cooler farther away from a hot source. "That's a bit of a puzzle," Jeff Brosius, a space scientist at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said in a statement. Why the corona is up to 300 times hotter (opens in new tab) than the photosphere, despite being farther from the solar core, has remained a long-term mystery. As the gases cool, they become the solar wind. Temperatures in the sun's corona (opens in new tab) can get as high as 3.5 million degrees F (2 million degrees C). It appears as white streamers or plumes of ionized gas that flow outward into space. Like the chromosphere, the sun's corona can only be seen during a total solar eclipse (or with NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (opens in new tab)). The third layer of the sun's atmosphere is the corona. (Image credit: NASA/SDO) (opens in new tab)
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