Astronomy

The Sun’s boiling surface

Explore a magnified patch of the photosphere. Follow warm upflows and cool lanes, and compare overturn time with the radiated energy flux.

Actual application image

The model and its limits

Prescribed periodic convection cells and a temperature contrast, not radiative magnetohydrodynamics. The patch relief and colours are exaggerated.

Equations used in the module

Equations
t_conv = L/v; F = σT⁴; T = 5772 K + 350 K × cell(x,z,t)

Astronomy

Strengthen a magnetic field and heat the plasma. Follow bright tracers along closed coronal loops and compare magnetic with gas pressure.

Astronomy

Choose a spherical oscillation mode. Watch the nodes stay still while opposite regions move in opposite directions.

Astronomy

Cool or compress a molecular cloud. Compare its mass with the Jeans mass and follow the pressureless collapse clock when gravity wins.