The European Space Agency (ESA) may have taken a step towards solving the 65-year-old solar mystery that scientists have been trying to solve for decades. The mystery is why the Sun’s atmosphere is so hot. This “coronal heating problem” has long puzzled astronomers, but a joint operation undertaken by Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter may finally provide an answer.
Solar Orbiter recently made interesting motion changes to allow it to observe the Sun from a slightly different angle, according to a new post from the European Space Agency. ESA says this allows Solar Orbiter to synchronize with measurements taken by Parker Solar Probe, providing a groundbreaking measurement unlike anything made before.
The Sun’s atmosphere, known as the corona, is incredibly hot. This may seem like an understatement, considering that our Sun is a very large star, barely reaching a million degrees Celsius. Although the Sun’s atmosphere is obviously hot, the mystery of why its atmosphere is so hot has puzzled scientists for many years, as the Sun’s surface is actually only 6,000 degrees Celsius.
In other words, the Sun’s corona reaches a temperature 150 times hotter than its surface. This coronal heating problem underpins most Sun-study missions. While each of these tasks provides intriguing information, when working together they can provide even more in-depth measurements that could eventually help us solve this intriguing mystery.
While there is some thought that there is a method for transferring energy to the plasma in the Sun’s atmosphere, scientists have never been able to determine exactly what it is. Now that Solar Orbiter has taken a big risk and repositioned itself, we may finally be able to get more answers.
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