Immense coils of hot, electrified gas in the Sun’s atmosphere behave like a musical instrument, scientists say.
These “coronal loops” carry acoustic waves in much the same way that sound is carried through a pipe organ.
Solar explosions called micro-flares generate sound booms which are then propagated along the coronal loops.
“The effect is much like plucking a guitar string,” Professor Robert von Fay-Siebenbuergen told BBC News at the National Astronomy Meeting in Preston.
‘Pipe organ’ plays above the Sun (BBC)
There is audio.
Elsewhere: coronal loop animation