What’s hot about the Sun? Picture the Sun: at its heart it is 15 million degrees, on the surface about 5,500 degrees, but in the cloud‑like corona it explodes up to 2 million degrees – even 40 million in eruptions.
Scientists from India’s Aditya‑L1 mission just mapped out how the corona keeps its heat. They found that three‑quarters of the energy comes from magnetic‑field lines that twist, snap and then snap back. The rest – a tiny 7 percent – comes from waves generated by bubbling motions on the Sun’s surface.
Every day the Sun sends out two to three coronal mass ejections that can make auroras glow or knock off satellites. During the 11‑year solar cycle peak, the Sun can launch more than 10 of these storms a day.
The team studied a powerful eruption on 5 August 2024. By tracking how energy re‑appeared in the corona within 10 hours, they proved the magnetic‑reconnection theory is real.
Next up for SnapScope is a quick quiz: guess which 93 percent of energy comes from the Sun’s magnetic shenanigans? Drop your answer in the comments.
