STORY , INFORMATION , DAILY DIARY

  What is the Sun's corona?              The Sun's atmosphere is called its corona. Sun's atmosphere is not like our own atmosphere. It has a temperature of 10,00,000°C and is a million times thinner than air. The brilliance of the Sun hides it from view, except during a total eclipse, when it can be seen from the Earth.              The corona contains atoms of hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, iron and other common elements. They are so hot, and scattered so far apart that they lose some of their electrons, which fly about.              During the total eclipse of Sun, the corona seems to extend for one or two Sun diameters into space (about two million kilometres). In fact, it extends out beyond the region of the Earth as a rapid outflow of atomic particles called the solar wind. The shape of the corona c...

What is solar wind?               The solar wind is the constant flow of charged particles from the Sun. These particles include protons, electrons and some nuclei of heavy elements. The speed of these particles is accelerated by high temperatures of the solar corona or outer region of the Sun, to velocities high enough to allow them to escape from the Sun's gravitational field.               Recent research using satellites have show that solar winds are made up of plasma, which contains ionised gases mostly to hydrogen and helium, and have equal number of protons and electrons.                The solar wind streams from the Sun though outer space at a speed of about 480 kilometres (300 miles) per second. It takes the particles about 3 1/2 days to reach the Earth.    ...