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Realigning magnetic fields may drive the sun’s spiky plasma tendrils

Solar spicules appear to dump heat into the corona

solar spicules

Whiskery plasma jets, known as spicules, on the sun appear as dark, threadlike structures in this image, acquired at the Goode Solar Telescope in Big Bear, Calif.

T. Samanta, GST & SDO

By Christopher Crockett

- More than 2 years ago

Tendrils of plasma near the surface of the sun emerge from realignments of magnetic fields and pump heat into the corona, the sun’s tenuous outer atmosphere, a study suggests.