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What are the properties of plasma and how do those properties make the Sun a giant sphere of massive energy?

Big Idea 3.1

Educator Background
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Educator Background

  • The Sun is made of plasma. Plasma is an ionized gas, which creates an electromagnetic field. Plasmas are electrically charged and they move through space, therefore produce currents. Just like the current flowing in a wire, a flowing plasma produces magnetic fields. The vast majority of the Sun's energy output is created at the Sun's core through nuclear fusion. This internal heating converts the gas within the Sun into a plasma. At the surface of the Sun, this plasma boils like a convecting fluid and generates the Sun’s magnetic field, which we can detect at the Sun’s surface. The release of magnetic energy by reconnection also heats the corona of the Sun to millions of degrees celsius, and also produces the plasma within the solar wind.

  • Learning Constraints

    At this level, students know that the Sun uses nuclear fusion at its core to make energy (HS-ESS1-6) and are learning about how the motion of electrons and ions in plasma produces its own electric and magnetic fields (HS-PS1-3)(HS-PS2-4,5).

  • Connect to Heliophysics

    Connect to the Sun by emphasizing that the Sun is made of plasma and how the properties of plasma create the phenomena we observe on the Sun, including sunspots, solar flares, and coronal mass ejections. Sunspots have intense magnetic fields and repeated ejection activity, where the tangled ropes of magnetic-field lines break through the surface of the Sun itself. They snap and reconnect, releasing huge amounts of energy. Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are bubbles of coronal plasma with intense magnetic field lines that are ejected from the Sun over the course of several hours. These solar storms are an element of what is called space weather, which can impact technologies on Earth and near-Earth environments.

  • Extend Exploration

    Extend student exploration by having them further investigate the physics of magnetic reconnection and how it maintains heat on the surface of the Sun. For example, when magnetic fields change from one shape to another (reconnection), the energy that is liberated in the changing magnetic fields can be used to heat the plasma.

  • Differentiate for Beginner Learners

    Support beginner students at this level by finding out what they know about magnetic fields of the Sun and Earth (MS-ESS2-1).

  • Differentiate for More Advanced Learners

    Challenge students at the next level by having them investigate the more complex magnetic reactions that occur inside the Sun, known as a magnetic dynamo.

NASA's IMAGE Spacecraft
NASA file image acquired September 11, 2005 To view a video of this event go here: www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/6257608714 From space, the aurora is a crown of light that circles each of Earth’s poles. The IMAGE satellite captured this view of the aurora australis (southern lights) on September 11, 2005, four days after a record-setting solar flare sent plasma—an ionized gas of protons and electrons—flying towards the Earth. The ring of light that the solar storm generated over Antarctica glows green in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum, shown in this image. The IMAGE observations of the aurora are overlaid onto NASA’s satellite-based Blue Marble image. From the Earth’s surface, the ring would appear as a curtain of light shimmering across the night sky. Like all solar storms, the September storm distorted the shape of the magnetic field that surrounds the Earth. Without buffeting from the solar wind (charged particles like protons and electrons that are ejected from the Sun), the Earth’s magnetic field would look something like a plump doughnut, with the North and South poles forming the slender hole in the center. In reality, the nearly constant solar winds flatten the space side of the “doughnut” into a long tail. The amount of distortion changes when solar storms, such as the flare on September 7, send stronger winds towards the Earth. Changes to the magnetic field release fast-moving particles, which flow with charged particles from the Sun towards the center of the “doughnut” at the Earth’s poles. As the particles sink into the atmosphere, they collide with oxygen and nitrogen, lighting the sky with Nature’s version of neon lights, the aurora. Though scientists knew that the aurora were caused by charged particles from the Sun and their interaction with the Earth’s magnetic field, they had no way to measure the interaction until NASA launched the Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) satellite in 2000. The satellite’s mission was to collect data that would allow scientists to study the structure and dynamics of the Earth’s magnetic field for the first time. Designed to operate for two years, IMAGE sent its last data to Earth in December 2005 after a highly successful five-year mission. Since 2000, IMAGE has provided insight into how the Earth’s powerful magnetic field protects the planet from solar winds. Without the shield the magnetic field provides, the upper atmosphere would evaporate into space under the influence of solar winds. IMAGE has shown scientists what sort of changes the magnetic field undertakes as it diverts solar winds from the Earth. For a summary of the discoveries that IMAGE has made possible, see IMAGE Discovers. Instrument: IMAGE Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram
Framework for heliophysics education

Heliophysics Resource Database

Use the guiding question above to explore resources at this level or go directly to our database to search for resources by level, NGSS performance expectation, topic, and mission.

Resource Database
In this animated GIF, a small portion of the Sun appears green. A bright white flash suddenly appears on the edge of the Sun.
On Nov. 4, 2003, this solar flare saturated the X-ray detectors on several Sun-observing spacecraft.
NASA/ESA/SOHO