Stig Östlund

fredag, mars 20, 2015

The Mystery of Nanoflares

March 19, 2015: When you attach the prefix "nano" to something, it usually means "very small." Solar flares appear to be the exception.

Researchers are studying a type of explosion on the sun called a 'nanoflare.' A billion times less energetic than ordinary flares, nanoflares have a power that belies their name.

"A typical 'nanoflare' has the same energy as 240 megatons of TNT," says physicist David Smith of UC Santa Cruz. "That would be something like 10,000 atomic fission bombs."



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