Astronomy Picture of the Day - 50,000 Kilometers over the Sun

NASA ^ | 09/19/2016 | (see photo credits)

[ThomasMore]

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2016 September 19

50,000 Kilometers over the Sun
Image Credit & Copyright: Pete Lawrence

Explanation: What's happening at the edge of the Sun? Although it may look like a monster is rampaging, what is pictured is actually only a monster prominence -- a sheath of thin gas held above the surface by the Sun's magnetic field. The solar event was captured just this past weekend with a small telescope, with the resulting image then inverted and false-colored. As indicated with illustrative lines, the prominence rises over 50,000 kilometers above the Sun's surface, making even our 12,700-diameter Earth seem small by comparison. Below the monster prominence is active region 12585, while light colored filaments can be seen hovering over a flowing solar carpet of fibrils. Filaments are actually prominences seen against the disk of the Sun, while similarly, fibrils are actually spicules seen against the disk. Energetic events like this are becoming less common as the Sun evolves toward a minimum in its 11-year activity cycle.

[US_MilitaryRules]

Yep! Amazing.

[US_MilitaryRules]

Beautiful picture.

[PrairieLady2]

What really puzzles ME about the sun is that it’s magnetic, and gas isn’t magnetic, metal is. Yet we’re told that the sun is compressed hydrogen. Could it be that it’s really made of molten metal and something like uranium???

What am I missing?

[ThomasMore]

One important aspect of magnetism on the Sun is magnetic reconnection, which can be better understood if we first examine what plasma is. Plasma is a state of matter occurring at high temperatures where electrons are not bound to the nucleus. As a result, ions and electrons are free to move about the material. The free movement of charges makes plasma highly conductive, thereby causing magnetic field lines to be “frozen” into the plasma.
In reconnection, fluid motions in plasma bring together two “frozen” and oppositely directed magnetic field lines. These field lines then reconnect into a lower energy state. As we found out in the Magnet Acrobatics activity, magnetic fields can store energy. Energy is stored in reconnection when the “frozen” field lines become distorted as a result of fluid motion. Reconnection reduces the amount of distortion, which in turn causes energy to be released. This can be illustrated in the following activity with rubber bands.

http://solar-center.stanford.edu/magnetism/full.html

[T. P. Pole]

I think hydrogen is actually a metal with a very, very low boiling/melting point. If you can cool it off enough to “freeze” it, it would be a metal.

Or, if you could put it under enough pressure you could do the same (since applying pressure increases the boiling point).

Near the center of the sun the hydrogen is a plasma. Or a degenerate state. This also allows it to act as a metal.

Personally, I am not sure off the top of my head if it is the pressure or the degenerate state that allows the magnetism, although a quick Google search would probably answer that. I’ll let you do that.

[JRios1968]

I could never understand how the sun continues to produce energy after all these millions/billions of years without burning out.......

[PrairieLady2]

Thanks, both! For links and for info.