As energy moves through the sun’s convection zone, it is heated and converted into plasma. This plasma then flows through the sun’s magnetic field and out into space.
The convection zone is the weakest point in the sun’s magnetic field. This is where the sun’s wind blows and where hot material rises.
Some of this heat is released as light and thermal radiation. The remaining heat helps to create the sun’s atmosphere and drives the sun’s global circulation.
The Sun’s convection zone is like a giant convection oven, which means that the sun is cooking its own atmosphere. As the atmosphere heats up, it expands and becomes less dense. Eventually, the air will become too hot for the gas particles to stay in their original form. At this point, they begin to melt. Once the particles start melting, the entire layer of gas becomes liquid. Once the gas has become liquid, it can no longer support the weight of the surrounding air. The gas falls toward the center of the Sun, creating the so-called solar prominences. The material falls back into the Sun, heating the surface and causing it to glow brightly. When the Sun’s outer layers cool, the gas turns back to gas, and the process starts all over again.
So, what happens to energy in the sun’s convection zone in a nutshell:
The sun’s convection zone is a layer of the sun where energy is transferred from the core to the surface.
Energy transfer: The energy in the sun’s convection zone is transferred through radiation, convection, and conduction.
Radiation: The energy in the sun’s convection zone is transferred through radiation.
Convection: The energy in the sun’s convection zone is transferred through convection.
Conduction: The energy in the sun’s convection zone is transferred through conduction.
Temperature: The temperature in the sun’s convection zone increases as you move closer to the surface.
How does the Sun’s outer atmosphere become corona?
The Sun’s outer atmosphere (known as the corona) is composed of hot, tenuous plasma. The plasma flows outward from the solar surface along magnetic field lines that connect to the Sun’s interior. In the lower corona, where the magnetic field is weakest, the gas pressure is greatest and the plasma is most tenuous. The temperature of the plasma decreases with increasing distance from the Sun.
At the edge of the Sun’s outer atmosphere, known as the chromosphere, the temperature reaches about 10,000 K (10,000°F). The chromosphere is a region of relatively high magnetic field strength.
The photosphere, located just beneath the chromosphere, is the visible surface of the Sun. The photosphere is the hottest and brightest part of the Sun’s outer atmosphere. At the Sun’s surface, the photosphere is about 10,000 K (10,000°F), about the same temperature as the core of the Sun.
Above the photosphere, in the transition region and in the upper chromosphere, the temperature decreases dramatically.
In the Sun’s very outermost atmosphere, the temperature falls off to a few thousand degrees below zero, and the density increases by several orders of magnitude. This is the realm of the super-hot, low-density plasma called the corona.
The plasma of the corona exists in the extreme state of ionization. Electrons, rather than protons, dominate the plasma. Plasma physicists refer to the coronal plasma as an electron-proton plasma.
The Sun’s outer atmosphere is divided into two regions: a dense, cool and magnetized region that surrounds the hotter and less dense corona.
In the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the gas pressure is higher near the solar surface and lower at greater heights.
Because the gas pressure decreases with height, the plasma becomes more and more tenuous as it rises above the photosphere. Eventually, the plasma becomes so rarefied that its electrons are stripped away and the ions become positively charged.
When the plasma becomes extremely tenuous, the electrons and ions are separated, creating a neutral plasma. The plasma becomes ionized. In the case of the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the plasma becomes ionized at the point where the density has decreased to such an extent that the plasma becomes sufficiently rare.
Plasma becomes neutral when the plasma has lost so many electrons that the positively charged ions of the plasma are left unopposed. Once the plasma is neutral, the particles in the plasma have the same number of positive charges as negative charges.
The Sun’s corona is a dynamic structure. As the plasma rises in the Sun’s atmosphere, it becomes increasingly tenuous. A small region of higher gas pressure forms in the plasma, causing it to condense into a blob.
As the plasma condenses, it compresses itself. The plasma blob becomes more compact and denser. As the plasma blob becomes denser, it begins to gain mass and gravitational energy.
This is how the Sun’s outer atmosphere becomes the corona.
