Heavenly Music

Here is what seems to me like the perfect Christmas story: Heavenly Music! Apparently, magnetic fields on the corona of the sun form loops that behave rather like musical instruments. Solar explosions create acoustic waves that act in similar ways to those of a guitar string, and these waves bounce back and forth between the loops in a phenomenon called a standing wave. Microflares at either end act like guitar picks and set the heavenly music in motion. The interesting sounds made by this process resemble those produced by a church organ, but must be artificially increased before the human ear can pick up on them. These acoustic waves release the same energy as millions of hydrogen bombs and can travel at up to 90,000 miles per hour, but within that hour, the "notes" they play will dissolve quietly into the hot solar corona. I wonder if they're playing any Christmas carols up there? Accompanying choirs of angels, perhaps? "Sing choirs of angels, sing in exultation, sing all ye citizens of heaven above. Glory to God, glory in the highest. Oh come let us adore him, Oh come let us adore him, Oh come let us adore him, Christ the Lord." Makes a lot of sense to me that the Sun should be honoring the Son at this time of year! Merry Christmas!! (All scientific information taken from Royal Astronomical Society National Astronomy Meeting in Preston, Dr Youra Taroyan and Professor Robert von Fay-Siebenburgen of the Solar Physics and Space Plasma Research Centre [SP2RC], University of Sheffield.)