Tiny flashes of radio light emanating from the sun discovered

Tiny flashes of radio light emanating from the sun discovered

Part of: GS-Prelims and GS-III – Space

In News:

• A group of scientists working at the Pune-based National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA) have recently discovered tiny flashes of radio light emanating from all over the sun. 
• These flashes could help in explaining the long-pending coronal heating problem.

Important value additions 

Coronal heating problem

• The solar corona is the outer layer of the Sun’s atmosphere. 
• It is composed of extremely high temperature gas, known as plasma
• Its temperature could reach upto millions of degrees Celsius.
• It is farthest from the core where the nuclear reactions powering the Sun occur. 
• It would logically be expected to be the coolest part of the Sun. 
• However, corona is 200 times hotter than the photosphere which is the layer beneath it.
• This contradiction is dubbed as the coronal heating problem. 
• It has puzzled astrophysicists ever since the temperature of the corona was first measured over 70 years ago.