Vocabulary 24.3

Photosphere

• the luminous envelope of a star from which its light and heat radiate.

CHromosphere

• a reddish gaseous layer immediately above the photosphere of the sun or another star. Together with the corona, it constitutes the star's outer atmosphere.

COrona

• the rarefied gaseous envelope of the sun and other stars. The sun's corona is normally visible only during a total solar eclipse when it is seen as an irregularly shaped pearly glow surrounding the darkened disk of the moon.

SOlar Wind

• the continuous flow of charged particles from the sun that permeates the solar system.

SUnspot

• a spot or patch appearing from time to time on the sun's surface, appearing dark by contrast with its surroundings.

Prominence

• the fact or condition of standing out from something by physically projecting or being particularly noticeable.

Solar Flare

• a brief eruption of intense high-energy radiation from the sun's surface, associated with sunspots and causing electromagnetic disturbances on the earth, as with radio frequency communications and power line transmissions.

Aurora

• a natural electrical phenomenon characterized by the appearance of streamers of reddish or greenish light in the sky, usually near the northern or southern magnetic pole.

nuclear fusion

• a nuclear reaction in which atomic nuclei of low atomic number fuse to form a heavier nucleus with the release of energy.