Lab experiment may reveal how the Sun's corona stays so hot
Chinese researchers simulate solar plasma instabilities that could drive coronal heating
Scientists in China have demonstrated a laboratory process that could help explain why the Sun's outer atmosphere, or corona, is hundreds of times hotter than its visible surface. The experiment, published in Physical Review Letters, used lasers to create plasma structures that brought magnetic fields together, releasing energy in a way that mimics a possible trigger for the nanoflares thought to heat the corona.