In summer, the energy of the sun seems more intense. But the sun is a nuclear furnace that never stops, and the sun's corona is so hot that high energy particles there reach escape velocity, flying into space at over a million miles an hour in a stream called the solar wind.
Made of ionized atomic particles and magnetic fields from the sun's corona, the solar wind is spun into a spiral as the sun rotates every 27 days. Here on earth, variations in the sun's magnetic field carried by the solar wind create auroras — the northern and southern lights — the plasma tails of comets, and geomagnetic storms that can knock out power grids.
On this transmission of Hearts of Space...another interstellar journey on electronic waves, on a program called SOLAR WINDS. Music is by JOHN LYELL, BROEKHUIS, KELLER & SCHONWALDER, MEG BOWLES, CHRONOTOPE PROJECT, CRAIG PADILLA & ZERO OHMS, HOLLAN HOLMES, and NIMANTY & SOLARSOUL.
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