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Different layers of the stars transport heat up and outwards in different ways, primarily convection and radiative transfer, but thermal conduction is important in white dwarfs. Convection is the dominant mode of energy transport when the temperature gradient is steep enough so that a given parcel of gas within the star will continue to rise if ...
In the most massive stars, the convection zone may reach all the way from the core to the surface. [2] In main sequence stars of less than about 1.3 solar masses, the outer envelope of the star contains a region where partial ionization of hydrogen and helium raises the heat capacity.
The molecular layer is cool enough to contain molecules rather than plasma, and may consist of such components as carbon monoxide, water vapor, silicon monoxide, and titanium oxide. The outermost part of the stellar atmosphere, or upper stellar atmosphere, is the corona , a tenuous plasma which has a temperature above one million Kelvin. [ 6 ]
The radius of the radiative zone increases monotonically with mass, with stars around 1.2 solar masses being almost entirely radiative. Above 1.2 solar masses, the core region becomes a convection zone and the overlying region is a radiative zone, with the amount of mass within the convective zone increasing with the mass of the star. [7]
The expanding outer layers of the star are convective, with the material being mixed by turbulence from near the fusing regions up to the surface of the star. For all but the lowest-mass stars, the fused material has remained deep in the stellar interior prior to this point, so the convecting envelope makes fusion products visible at the star's ...
A corona (pl.: coronas or coronae) is the outermost layer of a star's atmosphere. It is a hot but relatively dim region of plasma populated by intermittent coronal structures known as solar prominences or filaments. The Sun's corona lies above the chromosphere and extends millions of kilometres into outer space.
The occurrence of convection in the outer envelope of a main sequence star depends on the star's mass. Stars with several times the mass of the Sun have a convection zone deep within the interior and a radiative zone in the outer layers. Smaller stars such as the Sun are just the opposite, with the convective zone located in the outer layers. [204]
The red color of the chromosphere could be seen during the solar eclipse of August 11, 1999.. The density of the Sun's chromosphere decreases exponentially with distance from the center of the Sun by a factor of roughly 10 million, from about 2 × 10 −4 kg/m 3 at the chromosphere's inner boundary to under 1.6 × 10 −11 kg/m 3 at the outer boundary. [7]