Science & Tech · Space · 7 hrs ago
Lab experiment shows how tiny solar flares could heat the sun’s corona
Researchers recreated a tiny solar flare in a laboratory using powerful lasers and a small plastic target.
The experiment was led by Wei Sun and colleagues at the China Institute of Atomic Energy.
The team studied the corona, the sun’s outer atmosphere, which reaches millions of degrees and is thousands of times hotter than the sun’s surface.
With a wavy target, the plasma became unstable, its magnetic fields rearranged, and a nanoflare formed; a flat target did not produce one.
The nanoflare nearly doubled the plasma’s temperature, to about 800,000°C, compared with the flat-target test.
The results suggest that nanoflares could help heat the corona, though other processes may also contribute and the mystery is not resolved.
Sun’s team plans to build more realistic three-dimensional plasmas and compare laboratory measurements more directly with solar telescope data.
Researchers used powerful lasers and a plastic target to recreate conditions that can produce tiny solar flares in the laboratory.
The experiment showed that these nanoflares can heat plasma, potentially helping explain why the sun’s corona is so hot.
With a wavy target, magnetic fields in the plasma became unstable, rearranged and produced a nanoflare.
The plasma in that experiment reached 799,726°C, nearly twice the temperature in the flat-target experiment, where no nanoflares occurred.
A researcher who commented on the work said it does not definitively solve the coronal heating puzzle, as other processes could also contribute.
- Who
- Wei Sun and his colleagues conducted the experiment.
- What
- They recreated conditions that produced a nanoflare and heated plasma, offering a possible explanation for the corona’s high temperature.
- When
- Not stated
- Where
- In a laboratory; Sun is at the China Institute of Atomic Energy.
- Why
- To investigate how nanoflares might form and help heat the sun’s corona.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
Researchers fired four powerful lasers at a tiny plastic target, producing a patch of plasma about 2 millimetres across.
The plasma did not produce nanoflares.
The plasma became unstable, its magnetic fields rearranged and a nanoflare formed.
The plasma reached 799,726°C, nearly double the temperature in the flat-target test.
- Lasers used
- Four powerful lasers
- Plasma patch size
- About 2 millimetres across
- Wavy-target plasma temperature
- 799,726°C
- Temperature comparison
- Nearly double the flat-target result
- Flat-target result
- No nanoflares occurred
What people are saying
It is important to check that the laboratory is reproducing what the sun does.