SUN’S ATMOSPHERE SINGS

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Sun’s Atmosphere Sings—Solar Flares Pluck Magnetic Loops, Moving Sound Waves “Astronomers have recorded heavenly music bellowed out by the Sun’s atmosphere.” Jeanna Bryner/CR (April 22nd, 2007) REPORTER’S NOTE: While not directly a “Christian” story, my heart leapt at this report, as the Scripture about all Heaven and earth giving glory to the Lord came to mind. —Candice Ryan, BCN. New studies presented at the Royal Astronomical Society’s National Astronomy Meeting in Lancashire, England, have shown acoustic waves that are triggered by events on the sun’s surface. The sun’s corona is made up of magnetic loops. When flares erupt they cause “acoustic waves” to bounce back and forth, between them. (Photo: Solar Flares—NASA) “These magnetic loops are analogous to a simple guitar string,” Robertus von Fay-Siebenburgen, of the Solar Physics and Space Plasma Research Center at the University of Sheffield, explained. “If you pluck a guitar string, you will hear the music.” The cosmic orchestration is thought to happen when microflares, acting like a guitar pick, pluck the magnetic loops, which in turn starts the sound waves moving. However, attempts to enjoy this “solar symphony” with the human ear would be vain, as the sound waves are registered in milli-hertz—a thousandth of a hertz—far below the human hearing threshold.

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