Scientists have made a groundbreaking discovery that could unravel a long-standing solar mystery. They have observed small-scale magnetic twists on the sun, known as torsional Alfvén waves, which may hold the key to understanding why the sun's atmosphere becomes significantly hotter as it extends from the surface. This finding, made possible by the world's most powerful solar telescope, marks the first direct evidence of these waves, predicted by Swedish Nobel laureate Hannes Alfvén in 1942. The discovery ends a decades-long search and offers crucial confirmation for theoretical models about magnetic turbulence in the sun's upper atmosphere. The results, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, reveal that even in the sun's calmest regions, the corona is riddled with these waves, constantly turning the sun's magnetic field lines and carrying energy upward. This energy transport from the lower atmosphere into the corona, where it's released as heat, provides new insights into the extreme temperature difference between the sun's surface and its outer atmosphere.
