Discovering the Sun's Mysteriously Hot Atmosphere

Something mysterious is going on at the Sun. In defiance of all logic, its atmosphere gets much, much hotter the farther it stretches from the Sun’s blazing surface. Temperatures in the corona — the Sun’s outer atmosphere — spike to 3 million degrees Fahrenheit, while just 1,000 miles below, the underlying surface simmers at a balmy 10,000 F. How the Sun manages this feat is a mystery that dates back nearly 150 years, and remains one of the greatest unanswered questions in astrophysics. Scientists call it the coronal heating problem. Watch the video to learn how astronomers first discovered evidence for this mystery during an eclipse in the 1800s, and what scientists today think could explain it. Music credits: “Developing Over Time” by Ben Niblett [PRS], Jon Cotton [PRS], “Eternal Circle” by Laurent Dury [SACEM], “Starlight Andromeda” by Ben Niblett [PRS], Jon Cotton [PRS] Coronal spectrum image credit: Constantine Emmanouilidi Video credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Joy Ng (USRA): Producer Kathalina Tran (Wyle Information Systems): Writer Eric Christian Ph.D. (NASA/HQ): Scientist Nour Raouafi (Johns Hopkins University/APL): Scientist James A. Klimchuk (NASA): Scientist Ryan Milligan (University of Glasgow): Scientist Sten Odenwald (NASA/GSFC): Scientist Adrian Daw (NASA/GSFC): Scientist Tom Bridgman (GST): Data Visualizer Joy Ng (USRA): Animator Walt Feimer (KBRwyle): Animator Michael Lentz (USRA): Animator Kathalina Tran (Wyle Information Systems): Animator