Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to The Sun: Surface Artifacts Formation and Stability

re: The Sun: Surface Artifacts Formation and Stability
Michael Mozina — (archived)

>>The sun, apparently, can maintain certain magnetic structures for weeks at a time and in doing so, block the formation of granules in these regions. Like some invisible, magnetic force field, the gases and plasma are kept from these spots.

Actually, that's not what happens at all. What happens in sunspot activity is heated silicon plasma upwells through the neon plasma of the penumbral filemaments. The silicon plasma is heated by the electrical arcs from the surface. The "fields" you describe are simply the elecromagnetic fields you see around the flow of electricity. These events are in fact linked in that the surface features that spawn the increased electrical activity at the surface creates the heat that ultimately heats the silicon plasma and causes is to rise.

>>It is this same magnetic force that is the answer to your question about how these structures form at the .995 level. I think it is safe to assume that the surface of the photosphere is maintained not by gravity or atmospheric pressure, but rather must be viewed as a field and the movement of plasma, the solar flares, etcetera are all guided by the same principles that support a field.

There are few basic problems with that assesment. First you've yet to explain what holds magnetic fields in a stratified layer at .995R. Secondly you've yet to explain the carrier processes that hold a magnetic structure in 3D and creates a "stratified layer" that is capable of blocking the flow of plasma. You've also not explained what a plasma blocking, "stratified layer" is doing in the middle of the convection zone.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1641599.stm

You can see the heat concentration under the sunspot in the image on this page, and get confirmation about the fact that plasma does not flow through this stratified layer.

Log in or register to post.

The whole thread (91 posts)