When the sun song sings

Astronauts have recorded heavenly music played by the air currents circulating in the sun's atmosphere. Although this sound is only about milli-hertz (1/1000 hertz) - below the threshold of human hearing - but it causes the halo to be extremely hot.

A recent study published at the National Astronomical Conference of the Royal Astronomical Society in Lancashire (UK) showed that the magnetic fields along the outer regions of the sun, also known as the sun halo, could create Magnetic sound waves are like instruments like guitars or bagpipes.

Professor Robertus von Fay-Siebenburgen of the Space Plasma Research Center and Solar Physics at the University of Sheffield and colleagues combined the information gathered from the solar orbiting satellites with theoretical models. of sun activities to explain the sun's eruption phenomenon.

They found explosions on the surface of the sun that caused sound waves to bounce back and forth between the two limits of the belt, a current known as standing waves. "The belts from this field are similar to a guitar string," explained von Fay-Siebenburgen. "If you break the guitar, you will hear the music."

The longitudinal ring outside the sun can produce sound waves.
(Artwork of Time Magazine, VTC)

Similarly, waves called microflare at the foot of the belt can pluck magnetic belts and let sound waves move. Although solar surface explosions are the largest explosions in the solar system, microflare is millions of times smaller but occurs more often.

Both of these phenomena are thought to be a funnel that brings hot air into the floor outside the solar atmosphere.

These sound waves can be extremely powerful, can resound dozens of miles and go at speeds of 45,000 to 90,000 miles per hour. "These solar explosions release energy equivalent to millions of hydrogen bombs," said von Fay-Siebenburgen.

"This energy strikes magnetic strings or vertical music tubes, creates standing waves - similar to the waves you see on the guitar strings. This 'reverberant bass sound' will gradually decrease and turn off in less than one. hours, and dissipated in the hot sun aura " - he said.

This finding explains why the sun halo is so hot. While the Sun's surface has a temperature of 5,538 degrees Celsius, the plasma gas in the sun's halo can be 100 times hotter.

Phuong Lien