Scientists Discover What Causes Solar 'Spicules'

With the help of high resolution solar images from Swedish 1-meter Solar Telescope (SST), the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) satellite, and the NASA Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) satellite, solar scientists from Lockheed Martin and the University of Sheffield, UK have created a computer model that proves how spicules form on the sun. 'Spicules', discovered in 1877, are supersonic jets of material that periodically shoot up from the surface of the sun. Under certain conditions, sound waves at the surface of the sun, while normally damped out, may break through the surface creating shock waves that push out the material we see as spicules. These results will appear as the cover story in tomorrow's release of Nature.

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