We know our Sun as a brilliantly bright sphere that rises in the east and sets in the west each day. That’s a simple way to describe it; what really goes on on its surface is far from the impression that it gives as it hangs, almost calmly, in the daytime sky.
While going anywhere near the Sun would be suicide with the searing heat and penetrating radiation combining to fry you alive in your spacesuit, technology has revealed this star to be an angry, bubbling cauldron of solar activity.
First up are solar flares – bursts of radiation from the sudden release of magnetic energy from active regions on the Sun’s surface, the photosphere. These regions are centred on sunspots, which are tangled knots of magnetic fields. The flares…
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All About Space Tour of the Universe (Digital) - 1 Issue, All About Space Tour of the Universe 4th Edition