What are solar spicules

• These are jets of plasma, shooting out from the Sun’s outermost layer – the Chromosphere – and making incursions into its atmosphere.
• Solar spicules rise like forests from the Sun’s Chromosphere and pierce the Sun’s atmosphere or Corona.
• A typical spicule may be 4,000-12,000 kilometres long and 300-1,100 kilometres wide. These are structures that are believed to transport momentum to the solar wind and to provide heat to the solar Corona, which, intriguingly, can be a million degrees Celsius hotter than the Chromosphere.

Why in News

• A team of interdisciplinary researchers from India and the U.K. led by astronomers from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru, have explained the origin of ‘spicules’ on the Sun, using laboratory experiments as an analogy.

Reference:

1. https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/a-home-made-analogy-that-helps-study-solar-spicules-in-the-lab/article65217103.ece