The dark fingers of the solar atmosphere

The Sun is bubbling, forming mysterious finger-like plasma structures in its gaseous envelope, the corona. A German-American team headed by the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research has now succeeded in explaining these filigree-like forms. In their new theory, the scientists make use of a long-known natural phenomenon which can be observed in very different situations – in the distant cosmos as well as in a cup of tea at home.