Corona

High school (ages 12+)
Space & Astronomy

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/corona

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the scientific name?Stellar Corona
2. What is the composition?Highly ionized plasma, primarily hydrogen and helium, with trace heavier elements
3. What is a corona of a star?A corona is the outermost layer of a star’s atmosphere that looks like a glowing crown of fire and is hotter than the star’s surface.
4. Why is the Sun's corona so hot?Scientists call it the coronal heating problem; the corona reaches over 1 million Kelvin, much hotter than the Sun’s visible surface, and they are still trying to understand why.

Plasma: A fourth state of matter characterized by ionized gas, exhibiting collective behavior due to electromagnetic forces.
Coronal Heating Problem: The unresolved scientific question of how the Sun's corona reaches temperatures far exceeding its visible surface.
Geomagnetic Storm: A major disturbance of Earth's magnetosphere caused by the interaction of solar wind with the planet's magnetic field.
In-situ Measurement: Direct measurement of physical properties taken at the location where the measurement is made, as opposed to remote sensing.