Here's what you need to know about sun's coronal heating
The sun is a constant source of energy and light for the solar system, but it also holds many mysteries, one of which is the phenomenon of coronal heating. The corona is the outermost layer of the sun's atmosphere and it is much hotter than the surface of the sun itself. While the surface of the sun is around 5,500 degrees Celsius, the corona can reach temperatures of up to 2 million degrees Celsius. This unexplained heating of the corona is known as coronal heating. One theory for coronal heating is called "nanoflare" theory, which proposes that the corona is heated by small, frequent explosions, or nanoflares, that occur throughout the corona. These explosions are thought to be caused by magnetic reconnection, a process in which the sun's magnetic field lines break and then reconnect, releasing large amounts of energy. Another theory is known as "wave heating" which suggests that the corona is heated by waves, such as Alfvén waves, that travel ...