The Sun’s corona is 300 times hotter than its surface due to nanoflares, which generate temperatures up to 18 million degrees Fahrenheit. The Sun is a near-perfect sphere of hot plasma and is expected to remain stable for another five billion years.
You might think there’s nothing hotter than the surface of the Sun, but there is: the atmosphere around the Sun is 300 times hotter. Scientists have determined that the Sun’s corona is heated by a series of tiny explosions called nanoflares. These bursts of heating can generate extreme temperatures – up to 18 million degrees Fahrenheit (10 million degrees Celsius). “The explosions are called nanoflares because they have one-billionth the energy of a normal flare,” says Jim Klimchuk, a solar scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “Each one packs the power of a 10 megaton hydrogen bomb. Millions of them are extinguished every second across the Sun and collectively heat up the corona.
A hot spot in the universe:
The surface of the Sun is extremely hot at 10,340 degrees Fahrenheit (5,730 degrees C). About three-quarters of the mass of the Sun is made up of hydrogen. The rest is mostly helium.
The Sun is the star at the center of our solar system. It’s a near-perfect sphere of hot plasma.
The Sun is considered middle-aged and hasn’t changed significantly for more than four billion years. It is expected to remain fairly stable for another five billion years or so.
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