Miniature Plasma Loops

Miniature Plasma Loops Latest News

Astronomers at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), and their collaborators used high-resolution imaging and spectroscopy to catch miniature plasma loops elusive structures in action.       

About Miniature Plasma Loops

• These miniature loops are about 3,000–4,000 kilometers long and have a width of less than 100 kilometers.
• These are so small and short-lived, that they have stayed hidden until now.
• They hold clues to one of the Sun’s deepest mysteries –how it stores and unleashes magnetic energy.
• They offer a new window into how magnetic energy is stored and released in the solar atmosphere on small scales.
• Among the most intriguing features of the Sun’s outer layer are coronal loops, arc-like beautiful structures of hot plasma that glow at a temperature over a million degrees.
• While these large loops in the solar corona, or outer atmosphere, have long been studied, scientists are now also paying attention to miniature counterparts of these loops.
• This makes them challenging to study, as they stay hidden in the lower layers of the Sun’s atmosphere and are mostly unresolved by earlier telescopes.

Source: PIB

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