Solar Wind - Origin And Nature Of The Solar Wind, The Solar Wind And The Earth, The Solar Wind And The Heliopause
sun particles planet atmosphere
The solar wind is a continuous stream of particles that flows outward from the Sun through the solar system. The particles escape from the Sun because its outer atmosphere is very hot, and the atoms there move too rapidly for the Sun's gravity to hold onto them. The solar wind, which is made mainly of ionized hydrogen (free protons and electrons), flows away from the Sun at a velocity of several hundred kilometers per second. The solar wind continues past the outermost planet, Pluto, to the point where it becomes indistinguishable from the interstellar gases; this marks the end of the Sun's domain and is called the heliopause. Little of the solar wind reaches Earth's atmosphere, because the charged particles are deflected by our planet's magnetic field.
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One of the mysteries of the Sun is that its atmosphere becomes hotter at larger heights from its visible surface, or photosphere. While the photosphere has a temperature of 9,981°F (5,527°C), the chromosphere, only a few thousand kilometers higher, is more than twice as hot. Further out is the corona, with gas heated to one or two million degrees Kelvin. Although the reasons for this…
Beautiful aurorae are caused when charged particles, like protons and electrons, stream into the earth's atmosphere and excite the nitrogen and oxygen atoms in the upper atmosphere. When these atoms return to their normal, nonexcited state, they emit the shimmering, green or red curtains of light so familiar to individuals living in parts of Canada or the northern United States. If the sola…
Six billion kilometers from the Sun is the planet Pluto. At this distance, the Sun is only a brilliant point of light, and gives no warmth to heat the dead and icy surface of its most distant planet. The solar wind still flows by, however. As it gets farther from the Sun, it becomes increasingly diffuse, until it finally merges with the interstellar medium, the gas between the stars that permeates…
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