A new study may help solve one of astronomy’s oldest puzzles: how the Sun’s outermost layer, the corona, becomes much hotter than its visible surface. The research points to faint, continuous waves rippling through the solar atmosphere as a potential source of this mysterious heat.

The Sun’s visible surface, known as the photosphere, has a temperature of about 10,000°F (5,500°C). Strangely, the corona, the outer layer seen during solar eclipses, can reach 1.8 to 3.6 million°F (1 to 2 million °C) and, in extreme cases, even up to 72 million°F (40 million°C), according to NASA.

For decades, scientists have wondered how the corona, located farther from the Sun’s core, could be millions of degrees hotter.

The new study focuses on low-amplitude decayless kink oscillations, small, continuous

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