Our sun is more than a nuclear fusion factory and the source of energy for all life on Earth.
It's also a really big magnet.
In the sun's super-hot center, atoms are stripped of their electrons and boil to the surface
along charged convection currents as wide as Texas.
Moving charged particles, whether they're through a wire, or along solar plasma highways,
create magnetic fields.
As the sun rotates, these magnetic fields are tangled into knots that eventually pierce
the surface of the sun . . . now the real show begins.
Massive loops connect this mishmash of magnetic eddys, acting as conduits for million-degree
currents of plasma, glowing in ultraviolet, and only visible to special satellites.
The material flowing through a coronal loop carries enough energy to power Earth for thousands
of years, and when those loops break, they can whip billions of tons of charged particles
out into space.
If that ejection happens to be facing towards a particular tiny blue planet, that solar
sneeze can knock out power grids and mobile phones.
The sun can be a cruel mistress . . . giver of life, taker away of mobile phone service.
Of course, we're not totally unlucky when the sun blasts us with magnetic dragon fire
. . . because we get these.
Have you seen a mind-blowing science photo or video recently?
Leave a comment or find me here and let me know what we should look at next time science
makes us say...WHOA.