NASA Uncovers the Hidden Forces Behind the Sun’s Mysterious Moss

NASA research has uncovered how electrical currents and tangled magnetic fields heat the Sun’s mossy regions from 10,000 to 1 million degrees Fahrenheit, aiding in understanding solar atmospheric heating.

Did you know the Sun has moss? Due to its resemblance to the earthly plants, scientists have named a small-scale, bright, patchy structure made of plasma in the solar atmosphere “moss.” This moss, which was first identified in 1999 by NASA’s TRACE mission, blossoms around the center of a sunspot group, where magnetic conditions are strong. It straddles two atmospheric layers known as the chromosphere and corona and hides below the long feathery ropes of plasma known as coronal loops.