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It sits a million miles away from the Earth
它位于距地球一百萬里處的
at the Lagrangian point
拉格朗日點
where the gravitational pull from the Earth and the sun is equal.
此處地球和太陽的引力相等
Fixed in space it has an uninterrupted
這具固定在太空中的衛星可不受任何阻礙地
view of the sun and its tantrums.
觀察太陽及其狂暴行為
It has completely transformed our understanding
這完全顛復了我們既有的觀念
you can essentially see right from inside the sun,
因為我們可以從太陽內部開始
right through to the coronal mass ejections
一路看到離開太陽的
as they're leaving the sun,
日冕物質拋射
so you're seeing way out to 30 solar radii.
即30倍于太陽半徑的距離
Soho has played a key role in understanding
SOHO大大增進了我們
the explosive power of the sun.
對太陽爆炸性威力的了解
By blocking out the discit simulates an eclipse,
它可以遮住日面模擬日蝕現象
revealing the outer atmosphere and
呈現太陽的外氣層和
the true scale of the sun's largest eruptions.
大型噴發的真實規模
These are solar flares and coronal mass ejections
這些是噴發自太陽黑子核心的
and they erupt from the heart of sunspots.
太陽閃焰和日冕物質拋射
The temperatures in a solar flare will be tens of
太陽閃焰內的溫度高達數千萬度
millions of degrees so it's an extremely hot,
所以是溫度在短時間內
very dramatic change in temperature over a short period of time.
發生高熱、劇烈的改變
When they erupt completely you can get masses
完全噴發時，可以看到
which are roughly the mass of Mount Everest
質量相當于圣母峰的團塊
being flung out into the solar system.
被拋射進入太陽系
At solar minimum,flares are infrequent.
在太陽活動極小期間，閃焰并不常見
But every 11 years when the cycle peaks, at solar max,
但每隔11年周期到達頂峰，即太陽活動極大期
the sun puts on the best firework display in the solar system.
太陽會出現太陽系中最壯觀的煙火戲碼
Solar astronomers are now beginning to
太陽天文學家正逐漸開始
understand the cause of these explosions.
了解這種爆炸事件的起因
They are not caused by the power of fusion.
它們并非肇因于核融合的能量
There is another force at work.
而是另一種力量的運作
It is the force of magnetism.
這種力量就是磁力
The sun is covered in a complex network magnetic fields.
太陽復蓋著由磁場組成的復雜網路
A magnetic map shows a familiar patchwork
太陽表面的磁場分布
on the face of the sun.
看來十分眼熟
The areas of the strongest fields coincide exactly
磁場最強的部位
with the position of sunspots.
正好就是太陽黑子的位置
Here the magnetic field strength can be amplified 10,000 times.
磁場的力量在這里可以放大一萬倍
It turns out that the regions of the strongest magnetic field
原來太陽磁場最強的區域
on the sun are in the sunspots.
就是太陽黑子
And in the units that we use sunspot magnetic fields
我們測量到的磁場強度
are roughly a thousand,
約為一千
two thousand,maybe three thousand gauss.
兩千，或許到三千高斯
But if you look at magnets like the ones I'm playing with here,
但是我手上這個磁鐵
the magnetic field in these magnets
的磁場約為一千
is about a thousand to 1500 gauss.
到一千五百高斯
So these have roughly the same
所以磁場強度
magnetic field strength as a sunspot.
和太陽黑子差不多
