uranologist do not get laid why the solar corona , the atmosphere of the Sun , is so much hotter than its " control surface " , the photosphere . The photosphere is around 5,500 ° degree Celsius ( 9,940 ° F ) but the corona is about 1 million ° C ( 1.8 million ° F ) , almost 200 time hot . A novel study pop the question a mechanics to heat it up with high - frequency charismatic waves .

The Sun is powered by nuclear nuclear fusion reaction at its substance . So there must be a mechanism to carry that energy from the interior of the Sun to the corona . magnetic attraction is find out as the key to delivering the heating , although the exact means this pass off is not clean-cut . of late , evidence has suggestedtransverse oscillation to be key to that . The Modern oeuvre explains how .

The fastest oscillations are find in the little magnetic structures in the solar corona , celebrate in amazing item by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager ( EUI ) on plug-in the European Space Agency ’s Solar Orbiter .

“ Over the retiring 80 years , astrophysicists have tried to solve this problem and now more and more evidence is emerging that the corona can be heated by magnetic undulation , ” co - writer Professor Tom Van Doorsselaere at KU Leuven , sound out in astatement .

But the question the scientists had to require was : do these gamey - frequencies conduce enough energy to the St. Elmo’s fire ? Enough to explain the heating system in the Saint Ulmo’s fire ? Lead researcher Dr Daye Lim from the Royal Observatory of Belgium and KU Leuven ran a meta - analysis of everything that is sleep together about the waves , both the low - frequency and the high - frequency ones . And the fast ace sure enough can .

“ Since her results indicated a central persona for debauched oscillations in coronal heating , we will devote much of our attention to the challenge of discovering higher - frequency charismatic waves with EUI , ” Dr David Berghmans , the primary investigator of EUI from the Royal Observatory of Belgium , added .

We are living in a fortunate long time of solar observations from Solar Orbiter to NASA ’s Parker Solar Probe , bestow to the already many eyes we had on the Sun from space . With the piece of work done by the Big Bear Solar Observatory and now that theDaniel K Inouye Solar Telescopeis cease its commissioning phase , the hunt is on for a root to this closed book .

The research is published inThe Astrophysical Journal Letters .