Magnetic fields help launch the Sun’s narrow jets
The jets are called spicules. They rise from the chromosphere, the Sun’s thin, turbulent layer above its visible surface, and extend into the corona, the much larger outer atmosphere. They are not eruptions of solid material: they are streams of electrically charged gas, or plasma, guided and pushed by the Sun’s magnetic field.
Near the surface, the magnetic field is constantly being jostled by moving plasma. In some places, those motions can send a sudden upward push along magnetic field lines, lifting a narrow column of gas. Waves traveling through the atmosphere and changes in how magnetic fields meet and rearrange may both help drive spicules. Researchers do not treat every jet as the product of one simple mechanism; the Sun’s atmosphere is layered and dynamic, and different processes can contribute.
Brief jets, potentially important traffic
A spicule shoots upward and then fades or falls back within minutes. Its short life makes it easy to miss in a still image, but repeated jets cover the Sun’s edge in a restless fringe. Seen from the side, the chromosphere’s thinness makes these rising columns especially conspicuous against the darkness of space.
Their significance may reach beyond their striking appearance. Spicules carry matter and energy from the lower atmosphere toward the corona, whose temperature is far higher than that of the visible surface. Some material returns downward; how much spicule activity helps heat the corona or supply it with plasma remains an active question. The useful insight is that the Sun’s outer atmosphere is not fed only by rare, spectacular explosions: small, short-lived jets continually ferry material upward, one narrow burst at a time.
