The Mysteries of the Solar Plasma

How new experiments in plasma physics, and the Parker Solar Probe, might unlock the Sun’s secret source of power.

Beautiful arcs above the solar surface called coronal loops that emit in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV).

Much of the luminous universe — not counting ‘dark’ stuff — is hydrogen, at millions of degrees, and billions of atmospheres, crushed inside stars. Electrons are splitting off atoms and emitting light in the process. This state of matter is called a plasma.

In August of last year, NASA launched the Parker Solar Probe. In a series of ellipsoidal passes, it will fly through the solar corona — the sun’s atmosphere — capturing data. Like a child sticking his finger into a jar, poking something is usually the first step toward unraveling a scientific mystery.

I had the joy of getting a good look at the corona in 2017. The corona is what you see when an eclipse reaches totality, the beautiful luminous arms of light that reach out in all directions; the result of a cloud of fast-moving electrons scattering light as it diffuses out into space.

The Parker probe will fly through these arms, and scientists hope that it will begin to address the huge gaps in our understanding of the sun.

The corona is observed to be hot. This might not surprise you. But it actually rises in temperature from six thousand degrees…