Fountains of Plasma Rain Might Explain One of the Biggest Mysteries of the Sun
By Brandon Specktor, Senior Writer | April 11, 2019 10:09am ET
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Solar rain occurs when super-heated plasma rises up the sun's looping magnetic field lines, then falls back to the surface. The discovery of a mysterious new structure on the sun may explain where all the rain is coming from.
Credit: NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory/Emily Mason
Today's weather forecast on the sun calls for a high of 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5,500 degrees Celsius), constant supersonic wind, mysterious eruptions of giant lava-lamp-blobs and, oh yes, light rain. So, you know, pack an umbrella.
As bizarre as it sounds, rain on the sun is a relatively common occurrence. Unlike rain on Earth, where liquid water evaporates, condenses into clouds, then falls back down in droplets after growing sufficiently heavy, solar rain results from the rapid heating and cooling of plasma (the hot, charged gas that comprises the sun).
Scientists expect to see fiery rings of plasma rain rise and fall along the sun's huge, looping magnetic field lines after the eruption of solar flares, which can heat the plasma at the sun's surface from a few thousand to nearly 2 million F (1.1 million C). Now, however, NASA scientists believe they've discovered a completely new structure on the sun that may create days-long rain storms, even without the intense heat of solar flares. [Rainbow Album: The Many Colors of the Sun]
In a new study published April 5 in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, the NASA team describes the structures as raining null-point topologies (RNPTs) — superbright, comparatively small magnetic loops that rise up to 30,000 miles (50,000 kilometers) above the sun's surface. While studying five months of solar observations taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), the team detected three clearly visible RNPT structures, each of which blazed with plasma rain for days at a time.
More:
https://www.livescience.com/65210-new-sun-structure-explains-solar-rain.html