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Scientists May Have Finally Solved the Sun’s Mysteriously Hot Atmosphere Puzzle

Scientists May Have Finally Solved the Sun’s Mysteriously Hot Atmosphere Puzzle

Magnetic waves spotted by DKIST may finally explain why the Sun’s atmosphere burns at millions of degrees.

Written by Gadgets 360 Staff | Updated: 30 October 2025 22:53 IST

Scientists May Have Finally Solved the Sun’s Mysteriously Hot Atmosphere Puzzle

Photo Credit: NASA Goddard

Magnetic waves in the Sun’s atmosphere may finally explain its unexpectedly high temperatures.

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Highlights

New solar data detect long-sought Alfvén waves
Waves may fuel the Sun’s million-degree corona
Findings published in Nature Astronomy

For years, scientists have been struggling to solve the mystery of why the sun's outer atmosphere (corona). During an eclipse, the Sun's 5,500°C surface appears cool, while its surrounding corona reaches millions of degrees, far hotter comparatively. However, the surrounding corona can reach millions of degrees. Now, researchers claim that they have cracked this enigma. Now, researchers have detected magnetic waves in the Sun's atmosphere that they believe have a part to play in this long-standing cosmic mystery, and we're more clued up about these features of the Sun than ever before.

New Telescope Detects Magnetic Waves That May Finally Explain the Sun's Scorching Atmosphere

As per a report published in Nature Astronomy, in Hawaii, with the National Science Foundation's Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST), the findings were made. The high-resolution observations enabled the researchers to find what has long eluded them: “Alfvén waves”, thought to move huge amounts of energy from the Sun's surface into its outer atmosphere. Waves like these, Richard Morton, a solar physicist at Northumbria University who led the research, said in an email, could explain upward of half of the corona's famously hot temperature.

Scientists first proposed the idea of magnetic waves in 1942, but they were not observed until now. This new level of detail revealed twisting patterns in the Sun's magnetic field, Morton said, made possible thanks to DKIST's Cryogenic Near Infrared Spectropolarimeter. It appeared that these steady waves carried enough energy to heat the corona, confirming a long-suspected prediction of theories on their nature.

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It is found that magnetic reconnection and Alfvén waves are coupled to heat the solar corona, of which wave-mode heating accounts for half of its required amount. The results reveal clues to solar mysteries, space weather prediction, and stellar energy production across the universe.

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