NASA sounding rocket finds helium structures in sun’s atmosphere – Phys.org

Helium is the second most abundant element in the universe after hydrogen. But scientists aren’t sure just how much there actually is in the Sun’s atmosphere, where it is hard to measure. Knowing the amount of helium in the solar atmosphere is important to understanding the origin and acceleration of the solar windthe constant stream of charged particles from the Sun.
In 2009, NASA launched a sounding rocket investigation to measure helium in the extended solar atmospherethe first time we’ve ga…

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