What is a spicule?
Link to this answer
Share this credible answer with others. Simply paste this code into your blog or Web page:
At 600 mi (1,000 km) above the photosphere, the chromosphere separates into cool, high-density columns, called spicules, and hot, low-density material. The spicules, each about 500 mi (800 km) in diameter, shoot out at 20 mi per sec (32 km per sec) and rise as high as 10,000 mi (16,000 km) before falling back. Any point on the sun will erupt a spicule about once every 24 hr and there may be up to 250,000 of them at any instant. Other types of solar activity are found to occur in the chromosphere. The elements of each layer are sometimes distributed in bright, cloudlike patches called plages, or flocculi, and in general are located along the same zones as sunspots and fluctuate with the same 11-yr cycle; the relationship between the two is not yet understood.
|
Answer verified with
|
Related research articles
HighBeam gives you access to newspaper, magazine, and trade journal articles plus press releases, facts, information, and biographies from thousands of sources.