Related papers: The Sun is a plasma diffuser that sorts atoms by m…
Spicules are rapidly evolving fine-scale jets of magnetized plasma in the solar chromosphere. It remains unclear how these prevalent jets originate from the solar surface and what role they play in heating the solar atmosphere. Using the…
There is growing evidence that the Sun might have formed within a nebula impacted by at least one SNR. In this scenario, ejecta and shocks from SNRs may have provided the elements on which life as we know it is based. Investigating the…
Solar magnetized "tornadoes", a phenomenon discovered in the solar atmosphere, appear as tornado-like structures in the corona but root in the photosphere. Like other solar phenomena, solar tornadoes are a feature of magnetized plasma and…
Understanding the nature of the matter comprising the Solar System is crucial for understanding the mechanism that generates the Earth's geomagnetic field and the magnetic fields of other planets and satellites. The commonality in the Solar…
High-energy particles may be accelerated widely in stellar coronae; probably by the same processes we find in the Sun. Here, we have learned of two physical mechanisms that dominate the acceleration of solar energetic particles (SEPs). The…
Axions generated thermally in the solar core can convert nearly directly to X-rays as they pass through the solar atmosphere via interaction with the magnetic field. The result of this conversion process would be a diffuse…
Extrasolar planets appear in a chemical diversity unseen in our own solar system. Despite their atmospheres being cold, continuous and transient plasma processes do affect these atmosphere where clouds form with great efficiency. Clouds can…
The connection between nuclear fusion in the Sun's core and solar irradiance is obscured among other things by uncertainty over the mechanism of coronal heating. Data for solar wind density and velocity, sunspot number, and EUV flux suggest…
Popular scientific summary -- The atmosphere of the Sun is envisioned as composed of inherently complex, non-homogeneous, and dynamic layers. A detailed understanding of the physical processes involved in these layers is still lacking. For…
Theory predicts and observations confirm that low-mass stars (like the Sun) in their early life grow by accreting gas from the surrounding material. But for stars ~ 10 times more massive than the Sun (~10 M_sun), the powerful stellar…
For most of their existence stars are fueled by the fusion of hydrogen into helium proceeding via two theoretically well understood processes, namely the $pp$ chain and the CNO cycle. Neutrinos emitted along such fusion processes in the…
Beyond iron, a small fraction of the total abundances in the Solar System is made of proton-rich isotopes, the p nuclei. The clear understanding of their production is a fundamental challenge for nuclear astrophysics. The p nuclei constrain…
As an explosion develops in the collapsed core of a massive star, neutrino emission drives convection in a hot bubble of radiation, nucleons, and pairs just outside a proto-neutron star. Shortly thereafter, neutrinos drive a wind-like…
Mercury's high uncompressed mass density suggests that the planet is largely composed of iron, either bound within metal (mainly Fe-Ni), or iron sulfide. Recent results from the MESSENGER mission to Mercury imply a low temperature history…
The Earth is a planet with a dipolar magnetic field which is agitated by a magnetized plasma wind streaming from the Sun. The magnetic field shields the Earth's surface from penetrating high energy solar wind particles, as well as…
Solar winds originate from the Sun and can be classified as fast or slow. Fast solar winds come from coronal holes at the solar poles, while slow solar winds may originate from the equatorial region or streamers. Spicules are jet-like…
The flux of neutrinos and photons originating from cosmic ray interactions with the interstellar medium in the galaxy is calculated based on current models for high energy particle interactions. The contribution from a possible dark matter…
Identifying the two physical mechanisms behind the production and sustenance of the quiescent solar corona and solar wind poses two of the outstanding problems in solar physics today. We present analysis of spectroscopic observations from…
Solar flares are due to the catastrophic release of magnetic energy in the Sun's corona, resulting in plasma heating, mass motions, particle acceleration, and radiation emitted from radio to $\gamma$-ray wavelengths. They are associated…
Solar filaments, also called solar prominences when appearing above the solar limb, are cold, dense materials suspended in the hot tenuous solar corona, consisting of numerous long, fibril-like threads. These threads are the key to…