PICK OF THE WEEK
Pick of The Week
Seeing the Sun's magnetic field lines (February 12, 2002)
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In a low-density but highly ionized gas (or "plasma") such as the
Sun's outer atmosphere, the magnetic field rules: charged particles
must spiral around tight, loop-like magnetic fields, but might
actually escape from the Sun --- as the solar wind --- where the
field is nearly open (nearly straight field lines). The closed
magnetic loops originate in bright "active regions" in this image of
1 million K material in the lower corona, while the open field
originates in coronal "holes" of lower density and brightness. About
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