Published in Physics World, 12 Jun 2009
If you think the weather on Earth is unpredictable, on the Sun it is far more puzzling. For decades scientists have wondered how its corona — or outer atmosphere — can be so much hotter than its surface, even though they are thousands of kilometres apart. Then there is the question of what powers solar flares, which can shower satellites and astronauts with lethal radiation.
Now a group led by Konstantin Zioutas at CERN thinks the answer might lie with the “axion”, a hypothetical particle that could also explain the mysterious dark matter that seems to make up most of the universe’s mass. “If the logic is correct, then we should have a good chance to directly see solar axions, or axions made in the laboratory by ourselves,” says Zioutas. […]
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