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Super-hot, super-fast solar tornadoes

Super-hot, super-fast solar tornadoes


Date: 24 April 1998
Satellite: SOHO
Depicts: Solar Tornado
Copyright: See below

A gyrating high-speed storm wider than Africa projects like a chimney from the south pole of the Sun, in the lower picture. It is one of a dozen such tornadoes found by the SOHO solar spacecraft of ESA and NASA. The scanning spectrometer CDS, built and operated by a British-led team, made the discovery. It has imaged this previously unknown type of feature of the Sun's weather in gas at 250,000 degrees C. Measurements reveal flows of around 150 kilometres per second, or 500,000 kilometres per hour. For comparison, tornadoes on the Earth blow at 400-500 kilometres per hour.
Last Update: 1 September 2019
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20-Apr-2024 09:01 UT

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