NASA’s Parker Solar Probe recently made history when it made its first ever passage through the sun’s outermost atmosphere or corona with camera in hand.
Just wait and watch — now we have images from inside the sun that are truly amazing. Check out the time lapse in the video below around three minutes; but trust us and just watch the entire thing for maximum impact.
Composition of the Sun
Unlike Earth, which features a solid surface with an atmosphere, plasma (the fourth state of matter) forms the sun instead. As such, its surface changes frequently like the ocean waves, with chunks often breaking off and venturing into its atmosphere.
Most solar material that escapes the surface remains bound by gravity and magnetic fields of the sun’s gravity, creating the corona. Unfortunately, however, its visibility from Earth is usually too faint to detect except during solar eclipses.
Some of this material escapes the sun’s pull and blows through space as solar wind, eventually hitting Earth and creating aurora borealis and australis – two stunning displays we witness every night on our own planet!
Alfven critical surface refers to the line separating the sun’s atmosphere from the rest of solar system, where magnetic fields and gravity cease being strong enough to hold onto material that flows around it. Scientists can only estimate that it lies somewhere between 10-20 solar radii (4.3-8.6 million miles).
But for the first time ever, a spacecraft has now crossed over Alfven critical surface and entered our sun’s atmosphere.
