Most, however, are forced around the earth by the magnetic field and enter the “tail” which stretches out into a long cylinder. A few of the particles penetrate down to the earth along the lines of magnetic field in the polar areas. After 2-5 days’ travel trough space, the plasma reaches the earth’s magnetic field compressing it on the daylight side of the earth, and stretches it into a “tail” on the night side. As they escape, they are thrown out by the rotation of the sun in an ever widening spiral – the so-called garden-hose effect. This plasma escapes from the sun’s corona through a hole in the sun’s magnetic field. What was once hydrogen becomes a gas of free electrons and protons called plasma. At such temperatures, collisions between gas particles can be so violent that atoms disintegrate into electrons and nuclei. In the sun’s atmosphere or corona, the temperature rises again to several million degrees. The sun’s surface temperature is approximately 6,000☌, much cooler than the interior which is several million degrees. These particles are called the solar wind and cause the northern lights. Maximum production coincides with high sunspot activity when processes on the sun’s surface throw particles far out in space. To answer this, we start with the sun whose energy production is far from even and fluctuates on an 11 year cycle.
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