The Earth and the Sun share something pretty weird in common:
Wait for it… It. Is. Rain.
Researchers have detected “plasma rain” pouring down over the solar surface last month, which may also explain the big astronomical
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So, this amazing new plasma rain data, collected using high-resolution telescopes mounted on NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, showed that coronal rain works similarly to rain on Earth — well, with a few exceptions. Compared to rain on our little planet, plasma rain on the sun is millions of °C hotter.
Millions.
The sun, a ball of hydrogen and helium that is constantly fusing those elements together, creating the heat that basically keeps us alive here on Earth. Our solar star is also a hotbed of magnetic activity that periodically vents out rivers of charged particles which, if Earth gets in the way, cause auroras in the high atmosphere and can even short out satellites
How does solar rain form?
At the above-mentioned loop’s foot points, the plasma is superheated to over million °C, then, it expands up the loop and gathers at its peak away from the original heat source.
As the plasma cools off, it condenses and gravity pulls it down the loop’s legs as coronal rain.
To be exact: The track that plasma follows up and out of the sun is kind of like a car on a roller coaster. At the peak of the loop — the top of the roller coaster — plasma is at its
