Why is the chromosphere hotter than the photosphere?

The Sun may look like just a mass of incandescent gas (plasma, really), but it’s actually broken up into layers. The chromosphere is relatively thin region of the Sun that’s just above the photosphere. Even though it’s more distant from the center of the Sun, the chromosphere is hotter than the photosphere.

Is the chromosphere the hottest part of the Sun?

The temperature in the chromosphere varies between about 4000 K at the bottom (the so-called temperature minimum) and 8000 K at the top (6700 and 14,000 degrees F, 3700 and 7700 degrees C), so in this layer (and higher layers) it actually gets hotter if you go further away from the Sun, unlike in the lower layers.

Why is the solar corona so much hotter compared to the photosphere and chromosphere?

Why is the solar corona so much hotter than the photosphere? Energy is carried upward through the chromosphere by disturbed and tangled magnetic fields. The umbra of a sunspot is about 1500 K cooler than the surrounding solar photosphere.

Are Sunspots are hotter than the photosphere?

Sunspots are darker, cooler areas on the surface of the sun in a region called the photosphere. The photosphere has a temperature of 5,800 degrees Kelvin. Sunspots have temperatures of about 3,800 degrees K. They look dark only in comparison with the brighter and hotter regions of the photosphere around them.

How hot is the chromosphere of the sun?

about 36,000 degrees F.
the chromosphere is the innermost atmospheric layer. It is just above the photosphere. Here the temperature begins to rise again, to about 36,000 degrees F. Above the chromosphere is the transistion layer, where temperatures increase 6000 to over half-a-million degrees.

Why is sun corona hotter than surface?

It would create waves that can carry huge amounts of energy along vast distances – from the sun’s surface to its upper atmosphere. The heat travels along what are called solar magnetic flux tubes before bursting into the corona, producing its high temperature.

What happens in the chromosphere of the Sun?

NASA/Marshall Solar Physics. The chromosphere is an irregular layer above the photosphere where the temperature rises from 6000°C to about 20,000°C. At these higher temperatures hydrogen emits light that gives off a reddish color (H-alpha emission).

Is the sun’s corona hotter than the chromosphere?

Above the chromosphere is the transistion layer, where temperatures increase 6000 to over half-a-million degrees. Gases in this layer shine in the ultraviolet and extreme ultraviolet wavelengths. The outermost atmospheric layer is the corona, which gets really hot, almost 2,000,000 degrees F.

What heats the chromosphere and corona to a high temperature?

How do astronomers think the solar chromosphere and corona gets heated to their high temperatures? Magnetic fields carry heat outward from lower layers.

What is the chromosphere of the sun quizlet?

Definition: The chromosphere is outside of the photosphere and is approximately 2,500 km thick and has a temperature of nearly 30,000 Kelvin. Sentence with extra information: The chromosphere is visible only during a solar eclipse when the photosphere is blocked.

What is chromosphere of sun?

The Sun’s chromosphere appears as a rim of red light during a solar eclipse. The chromosphere is above the photosphere, the visible “surface” of the Sun. It lies below the solar corona, the Sun’s upper atmosphere, which extends many thousands of kilometers above the chromosphere into space.

What is the Sun’s chromosphere?

The researchers used cutting-edge solar-imaging technology to observe the Sun’s chromosphere – a distinct region of the sun’s atmosphere sandwiched between the photosphere and the outer corona.

Why is the sun’s surface colder than its atmosphere?

One of the biggest mysteries in solar physics is how is it possible that the sun’s surface is colder than its atmosphere. At first glance, it seems that the sun’s atmosphere, called the corona, is hotter than the heat source which is preposterous given the second law of thermodynamics.

Why is the Sun’s corona hotter than the photosphere?

Edlén and Grotrian’s finding that the sun’s corona is so much hotter than the photosphere – despite being further from the sun’s core, its ultimate source of energy – has led to much head-scratching in the scientific community. Scientists looked to the sun’s properties to explain this disparity.

How thick is the photosphere and chromosphere?

The photosphere is about 300 km thick. Most of the Sun’s visible light that we see originates from this region. The chromosphere is about 2000 km thick. We only see this layer and the other outer layers during an eclipse. The corona extends outwards for more than a solar radius.