A Big Hole in the Sun’s Atmosphere

[Elderberry]

Spaceweather December 7, 2018   

A large hole in the sun’s atmosphere is facing Earth and spewing a stream of solar wind in our direction. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory is monitoring the structure, shown here in a false-color UV image taken on Dec. 6th:



The hole (technical term: “coronal hole”) is so large it almost completely bisects the solar disk, stretching more than a million km across the sun’s equator.

More: https://spaceweatherarchive.com/2018/12/07/a-big-hole-in-the-suns-atmosphere/

[Skeptic]

I would call that a depression because it really isn't a hole. Intriguing. They say there's a sunspot minimum but what do you call that? A large sunspot.

[Wingnut]

I think we can rule out man made causes.

[Elderberry]

I would call that a depression because it really isn't a hole. Intriguing. They say there's a sunspot minimum but what do you call that? A large sunspot.

A depression is still a hole. A shallow hole.

Coronal holes are areas where the Sun's corona is colder, hence darker, and has lower-density plasma than average because there is lower energy and gas levels.

Sunspots are active regions on the sun's surface. These are the areas of tightly packed magnetic fields of opposing polarity. They build-up high energy and released at certain condition.

[Skeptic]

A depression is still a hole. A shallow hole.

Coronal holes are areas where the Sun's corona is colder, hence darker, and has lower-density plasma than average because there is lower energy and gas levels.

Sunspots are active regions on the sun's surface. These are the areas of tightly packed magnetic fields of opposing polarity. They build-up high energy and released at certain condition.

I don't want to get on with what defines a hole, especially with a female, but I think that a hole is deeper than it is wide and usually defined as circular.

True about the sunspots thing.

[DB]

A depression is still a hole. A shallow hole.

Coronal holes are areas where the Sun's corona is colder, hence darker, and has lower-density plasma than average because there is lower energy and gas levels.

Sunspots are active regions on the sun's surface. These are the areas of tightly packed magnetic fields of opposing polarity. They build-up high energy and released at certain condition.

So you're saying coronal holes generally occur when sunspot activity is low?

[Elderberry]

I don't want to get on with what defines a hole, especially with a female, but I think that a hole is deeper than it is wide and usually defined as circular.

You think too much.

Partial Definition of hole in English:

1.A hollow place in a solid body or surface.

1.1 An aperture passing through something.

2. A place or position that needs to be filled because someone or something is no longer there.

3. (informal) An unpleasant place.

[Elderberry]

So you're saying coronal holes generally occur when sunspot activity is low?

That's my guess.

Such holes may appear at any time of the solar cycle but they are most common during the declining phase of the cycle. Coronal holes occur when the Sun's magnetic field is open to interplanetary space.