Indian solar mission's new findings throw light on enduring Sun mysteries

Indian scientists have made significant breakthroughs in understanding the enigmatic high temperatures of the Sun's corona, thanks to the latest data from the country's first solar observation mission, Aditya-L1. This celestial puzzle has baffled researchers for centuries, with the corona being millions of degrees hotter than the Sun's surface.

Prof R Ramesh, a leading Indian solar astrophysicist at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, led the study revealing these findings in a prestigious Astrophysical Journal Letters paper. The core of the Sun, where temperatures reach 15 million degrees Celsius, is a stark contrast to the corona, which can soar up to 40 million degrees Celsius.

The researchers uncovered that the corona maintains its extreme temperature through two key mechanisms. First, the bubbling and boiling motions on the Sun's surface generate waves that carry energy towards the corona, akin to waves reaching the shore with foam and froth. However, these waves only contribute to 7% of the corona's energy supply.

Secondly, the tangled magnetic field lines in the Sun's atmosphere are constantly reconfiguring themselves, snapping and reconnecting, which replenishes the lost energy. This second mechanism accounts for the staggering 93% of the energy required to sustain the corona's scorching temperature.

These findings provide crucial insights into the Sun's energy generation and retention mechanisms, offering a benchmark for future studies. The research clearly demonstrates that while the bubbling motions on the Sun's surface generate and transport energy, it's the magnetic field lines snapping and reconnecting that primarily supply most of the energy to the corona.