All articles tagged with #corona
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe detected voltage spikes from clouds of charged dust near the Sun, suggesting dust interacts with Alfvén waves and the solar wind to deposit energy into the corona. This could help explain why the corona reaches millions of degrees hotter than the Sun’s surface and may influence how future solar missions study near-sun dust.
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has repeatedly traversed the Sun’s corona—the outer atmosphere where temperatures soar above a million degrees—giving in-situ measurements that deepen the mystery of why the corona is so hot. A December 2024 near-surface pass (6.1 million km from the Sun, traveling ~692,000 km/h) confirmed the craft’s survival and enabled direct plasma, magnetic-field, and flow readings. The results keep the heating question open, highlighting two leading ideas—wave heating and small-scale magnetic reconnection (nanoflares)—neither of which is yet confirmed as dominant. The mission also finds switchbacks (abrupt magnetic reversals) abundant in the near-Sun solar wind but apparently absent inside the corona, refining how the wind is accelerated and fed by coronal processes. With repeated passes through late 2026 and NASA’s review looming, Parker’s data are helping to distinguish between competing explanations, but the exact energy transfer powering the corona remains unresolved.
The Parker Solar Probe is now flying through the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona, at about 430,000 mph—fast enough to cross the continental U.S. in 20 seconds. Behind a 4.5-inch-thick carbon-carbon shield with a carbon foam core, the electronics stay near room temperature while the shield’s face reaches roughly 2,500°F. The shield’s design lets it approach the Alfvén surface and sample fast‑moving solar wind and structures, a capability made possible by seven Venus flybys to tighten its orbit. The probe carries four instrument suites (FIELDS, SWEAP, WISPR, ISʘIS) to study electric and magnetic fields, particles, and corona imagery, and its speed and shielding enable science beyond the original plan.
Using a UV camera mounted on a research vehicle, scientists captured hundreds of tiny corona discharges glowing along treetops during thunderstorms, showing that nearly every leaf can glow under a storm’s electric field; each corona carries about a microamp of current and produces hydroxyl radicals that can scrub pollutants but may also damage leaves, with potential implications for forest chemistry and even storm dynamics, observed across multiple storms and tree species and reported in Geophysical Research Letters by Penn State researchers led by P. J. McFarland.
Researchers mounted a UV camera on a modified minivan to capture the ultraviolet corona emitted by trees during thunderstorms for the first time. The team observed 41 bursts in sweetgum and loblolly pine across the U.S. East Coast, with each burst emitting billions of photons at around 260 nanometers. This real but previously unobserved glow could influence forest health and atmospheric chemistry and may play a role in thunderstorm electrification, suggesting such coronae occur across forests worldwide.
Scientists captured the first field evidence of coronae—ultraviolet glows at leaf tips—generated by charge buildup as storms pass over trees. In lab simulations and storm-intercept observations along the US East Coast, researchers logged 41 bursts lasting 0.1–3 seconds, emitting about 100 billion photons per frame at ~260 nm, across species including sweetgum, loblolly pine, maple, and spruce, suggesting a real, widespread electrical glow with potential implications for forest chemistry and how thunderstorms electrify in a warming climate.
A decade of eclipse-era observations by researchers at the University of Hawai'i reveals turbulent structures in the Sun's outer atmosphere that originate from prominences and survive as they travel outward with the solar wind, providing new clues to coronal heating and space-weather effects on Earth.
ESA's Proba-3 mission captured a five-hour artificial eclipse, producing a time-lapse of three solar prominences erupting from the Sun's corona. By aligning the coronagraph with an occulter, scientists can study the sun’s faint outer atmosphere in unprecedented detail, combining Proba-3 data with NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory imagery. The prominences appear to erupt without the bright flares typical of solar explosions and are cooler than the million-degree corona, offering clues to why the corona is so hot and how these plasma eruptions contribute to solar activity.
A man in his 20s was killed and another critically injured after being struck by a hit-and-run SUV while crossing the street in Corona, Queens, early New Year's Day; the driver fled the scene and is being sought by authorities.
New observations from the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope suggest that Alfvén waves, magnetic waves traveling through the sun's corona, carry significant energy that may explain the long-standing mystery of why the sun's outer atmosphere is much hotter than its surface, potentially accounting for at least half of the heating required.
Scientists at the University of Hawai‘i have discovered that changing elemental composition in the Sun's corona drives the phenomenon of solar rain, resolving long-standing questions about how plasma cools and condenses rapidly during solar flares, which could improve space weather predictions.
Astronomers used a rare 'double zoom' gravitational lensing technique to directly measure the size of a black hole's corona, revealing it to be about the size of our solar system, and opening new avenues for studying black hole environments.
Constellation Brands, parent of Modelo and Corona, faces a significant drop in beer sales, especially among Hispanic consumers, leading to a profit and sales warning and a stock price near a 5-year low, with revised earnings and sales outlooks for 2026.
Constellation Brands, owner of Corona and Modelo, reports a 2% decline in beer sales and a 28% drop in wine and spirits, citing economic concerns, inflation, and changing consumer attitudes towards alcohol as key factors. The company is adjusting pricing strategies to address these challenges amid broader shifts in American drinking habits and health awareness.
Corona's parent company, Constellation Brands, reports a 2% decline in beer sales, primarily due to reduced spending by Hispanic customers who are staying home more often amid socioeconomic concerns and immigration policy fears, impacting sales in key markets.