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Article: Big chill in the solar atmosphere. (includes article on crystal holography)
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- January 8, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Earth intercepts only a minuscule fraction of the light and heat radiated by the sun, but it's enough to sustain life on the planet. How the sun's energy, originating in nuclear fusion reactions at its core, gets to the sun's surface and through its atmosphere into space has long interested solar astronomers.
New data now suggest that the chromosphere--that portion of the sun's atmosphere between its surface, or photosphere, and its corona -- contains a large component of gas much colder than many researchers had supposed in their traditional models of energy transfer in the atmosphere.
"This really changes our whole picture of what the chromospher is ...