what are solar winds? what do they produce?

Answer 1

Think about a pot of boiling water. Most of the water is in the pot, of course, but some of the water molecules get enough energy to zip clean out of the liquid phase and out away from the water.

That is sort of like the solar wind. The Sun is a constant balance of forces, between huge temperatures and pressures pushing out and gravity drawing it all back in. One thing that can constantly escape are small, highly energetic particles, which blow constantly away from the Sun in all directions. This is the solar wind.

One of the most obvious manifestations of the solar wind is the aurora borealis. When the charged energetic particles in the solar wind are deflected into one spot by the magnetic field of the earth, they shed their energies into the upper atmosphere and cause the emission of those famous coloured lights. Another well-known manifestation of the solar wind are tails on comets. The tail of a comet ALWAYS points directly away from the sun... that's the solar wind blowing the comet's gases.

On average, the solar wind is blowing past Earth at a rate of about 450 m/s (that's about a thousand miles per hour). It's very low density and the Earth's magnetic field prevent it from having a massive effect, however. It's much stronger nearer the Sun, obviously - it travels about a thousand times faster and is thought to be responsible for Mercury's total lack of atmosphere.

The solar wind has a number of other unusual properties that are not obvious at first glance. For one, they are made up of the fourth state of matter - plasma. Because of the environment in the Sun, the particles in the solar wind are all tend to carry an electric charge. This means that, unlike a gas, the solar wind can conduct electricity and transmit magnetic fields across large distances. Another curious feature is that the constant outward motion pushes away light interstellar materials. The point at which interstellar stuff and the solar wind are in balance is called the heliosphere, which is generally considered to be the border of our (or any) solar system.

Hope that helps. A link or two below.

Answer 2

The effort you put into typing in your entire homework here would have been better spent *doing* your homework.