Solar Corona Reveals New Class of Structures

Using data from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft, experts with the Naval Research Laboratory were recently able to discover a new type of structure in the solar corona.

The finding could be used to advance our knowledge of how magnetic fields evolve at the edge of coronal holes. These are regions on the Sun where the omnipresent magnetic fields do not loop back towards the star, but rather shoot out into space.

Solar physicists now believe that coronal cells – the structures featured in the video above – may have something to do with the way these magnetic fields behave. The way this connection functions is still a mystery, but now researchers have a solid lead to go on.

“When you see them from the side, they look like flames. When you look at them straight down they look like cells,” says NRL solar scientist Neil Sheeley, quoted by Universe Today.