A Northumbria University astronomer has led a study which has discovered a phenomena similar to shooting stars on the sun.
Patrick Antolin, an assistant professor in the department of mathematics, physics and electrical engineering, will present the findings this week at the National Astronomy Meeting (NAM 2023). Observations from the European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter (SolO) unveiled never-before-seen falling star-type events, or meteor-like fireballs occurring within the plasma displays known as coronal rain.
Though it does not include real water, coronal rain is a condensation process in which some of the sun's fiery material clumps together as a result of sudden and localised drops in temperature. The sun's corona, the outermost part of its atmosphere, is formed of gas at million degree temperatures.
