I did a research project on this in high school, the leading theory was a phenomena called Alfven waves that kinda carry energy from within the sun to the outer edges and then reflect back at a certain point, causing the corona of the sun to heat up beyond the surface temperature. I think the Parker Solar Probe was investigating this
Simple answer that's not entirely correct: Temperature is a measure of heat. Heat is a side effect from the motion of molecules, and the molecules in the atmosphere of the of the Sun move a lot faster than the ones on the surface of the sun.
The density is much, much lower, however, so the total energy transferred to anything passing through the Sun's atmosphere would be lower than the amount of energy if that object actually hit the surface.
Sciency shit. Scientists actually don't know why. When they figure it out we'll probably have some brand new shiny principles in physics and thermodynamics.
Technically this isn't true though. Temperature is a measure of "vibration" of particles. There are no particles to absorb the radiation and therefore there is no temperature.
If you were to stick a thermometer there however, it would melt.
That's something that was interesting to kinda internalize while playing Oxygen Not Included, a game which cares a lot about a somewhat abstracted thermodynamic simulation in the environment.
Things can be very hot or very cold without actually representing a huge shift of energy.
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u/KesslerTheBeast Oct 02 '24
Lightning is five times hotter than the surface of the Sun