How the Sun’s magnetic forces arrange gas particles

Research team including Göttingen University observes charged particles 70 percent faster than uncharged Solar prominences hover above the visible solar disk like giant clouds, held there by a supporting framework of magnetic forces, originating from layers deep within the Sun. The magnetic lines of force are moved by ever-present gas currents - and when the supporting framework moves, so does the prominence cloud. A research team from the University of Göttingen and the astrophysics institutes at Paris, Potsdam and Locarno observed how magnetic forces lifted a prominence by 25,000 kilometres - about two Earth diameters - within ten minutes. The results of the study were published in The Astrophysical Journal . This uplift corresponds to a speed of 42 kilometres per second, which is about four times the speed of sound, in the prominence. Oscillations occurred with a period of 22 seconds, during which positively charged ions of iron were up to 70 per cent faster than neutral helium atoms. The charged iron ions have to follow the movement of the magnetic field but the uncharged helium atoms are not affected in the same way.