This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.

Welcome to Brain Stuff, a production of IHeart Radio.

Hey, Brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum here.

The sun makes almost all life as we know it on Earth possible.

But there's still a lot we don't understand about this miasma

of incandescent plasma, as the band they might be giants have put it. For example, exactly

how powerful are its magnetic storms? Could a solar flare or other event on the surface of the

sun affect us here on Earth? Here's what we do know. The sun is a

massive object comprised of intensely hot ionized gases. We call this kind of gas plasma, and it's the

most common state of matter in the universe. The atoms that make up the gases in the sun are so hot that they

can't hold on to their electrons. The gases flowing currents through the sun, carrying electrons

with them. If you're at all familiar with electromagnets, you know that an electrical current

can create a magnetic field. That's the case with the sun. The sun has an

enormous magnetic field around it. The rotation of the sun perpetuates this magnetic field.

To make matters more complicated, hot objects tend to expand, and the sun is an extremely hot object.

But the sun is also large and dense, which

means it has a strong gravitational pull. The sun's gravity balances out its tendency to expand.

The combination of these forces can cause the sun's surface to change in dramatic and

sometimes violent ways. The currents of gas can cause

magnetic field lines to twist. That can prevent hotter gases from the sun's core from rising to the

surface, creating sunspots. Sunspots are cooler and darker than the areas that surround them.

...