Solar tornadoes
The story behind twisters on the Sun that are a thousand-times larger than their Earth counterparts
Agigantic sphere of hydrogen plasma, or ionised gas, our Sun is by far the most dominant body in the Solar System, and one of its most visually intense events is a solar tornado. These enormous magnetic field anomalies are between 100 and 1,000 times larger than what we’re used to on Earth and have been observed at a gigantic 100,000 kilometres tall. It has been calculated that over 11,000 of these phenomena are on the Sun’s surface at any time. They are believed to be a potential source of heating for the outer reaches of the Sun and could even contribute to aurorae on our planet.
Solar tornadoes differ from Earth-based twisters because they are comprised of a magnetic field of plasma. They are more frequently spotted around the Sun’s equator and poles, as this is where magnetism is most prominent. They exist on other stars as well as the Sun and burn at over a million degrees Celsius. They don’t twist like terrestrial tornadoes do and remain fixed in place.
They appear in clusters, and their main function seems to be to heat their star’s outer atmosphere by moving energy from the surface to the uppermost layer, the corona. They generate 100 to 300 watts per square metre and are believed to be the reason for the corona’s heat production, which has puzzled scientists and astronomers for generations. Observations from the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope in 2008 have increased our understanding of how nature heats magnetised plasma and how the ‘chromospheric swirls’ we can see are a result of the tornadoes.