A procedurally shaded turbulent plasma sun with a looping prominence arc erupting
from its surface and streaming particles along the magnetic loop.
The sun's visible surface (the photosphere, ~5500°C) is never still: rising columns of
hot plasma create a granulation pattern a few thousand kilometers wide, while twisted magnetic
field lines punch through the surface to form sunspots and towering loop-shaped prominences.
A solar flare erupts when stressed magnetic field lines suddenly "reconnect," releasing
stored magnetic energy as a burst of light, heat and accelerated particles in minutes. The
largest (X-class) flares can release up to about 10
25 joules — roughly a
billion times the energy of a large volcanic eruption — and are often followed by a
coronal mass ejection that hurls billions of tons of plasma into space.
- Photosphere temperature: ~5,500°C (5,778 K)
- Corona temperature: 1–3 million °C, far hotter than the surface below it
- Granule size: ~1,000–2,000 km, each cell lasts only 8–20 minutes
- X-class flare energy: up to ~1025 joules, released in minutes
- Flare light reaches Earth in ~8.3 minutes; particles/CME take hours to days
- Solar (sunspot) cycle: ~11 years between activity minima and maxima
- Coronal mass ejections can travel at 250–3,000 km/s
- Sunspots are cooler (~3,500°C) regions of intense magnetic field