Solar Wind
How fast are solar winds detected by spacecraft above Earth's atmosphere?
450 km/second (1 million miles/hour)
What protects us from solar winds?
Earth's atmospheric and magnetic fields
What is the solar wind?
is a stream of energetic, electrically charged particles that flows outward from the Sun at all times
What allows the solar winds to escape?
magnetic fields are weak at coronal holes
How is a solar wind different from a Earth wind?
much, hotter, thinner, and faster
What are coronal holes?
regions in the Sun's corona where gases have a much lower density than neighboring areas and solar winds originate
When is solar wind most intense?
When solar activity is at maximum
What do strong blasts of solar winds produce?
brilliant auroras
When do the largest solar winds occur?
coronal mass ejections