In 1910, Arthur Eddington, a British astrophysicist, discovered solar winds. Solar winds are basically a continuous (never ending) stream of particles from the sun. They are also known as stellar winds. Their usual means of protection from the sun is through the coronal holes. Their main cause is an expansion of gases in the corona, which is the outer layer of the sun. The idea that the corona is plasma was thought up by Richard C. Carrington. The temperature of the corona is 2,200,000 degrees Celsius. It's so hot that even the sun's gravity can't contain it. It heats the gases and makes them expand. Gas elements collide when heated. As a result, they lose their electrons. Then the atoms become positively charged ions, electrons and ions (which are mostly hydrogen ions) make up the solar wind. The speed of solar winds varies from 250 to 1,000 kilometers per second. It has a density of 82 ions for each cubic inch, or 5 ions per cubic centimeter. Solar winds cause many events in the solar system, such as atmosphere-less Mercury and the acidic, radiation-filled clouds of Venus. They are also known as electrically charged hurricanes. The magnetosphere, which is a collection of strong magnetic forces surrounding Earth, is compressed into a teardrop shape by the solar wind as it travels past Earth. The magnetosphere blocks the solar wind from reaching our Earth's surface. When the solar wind blows over a comet, it forms an ion tail which is one of many types of tails a comet can have. There are long, straight ion tails, and others made of ionized matter, that solar winds blow off the comet. Some solar winds miss Earth when solar winds violate our magnetic field...... middle of paper ...... You can think of solar winds as the outer corona in an episode of continued expansion. The solar wind is made of much the same material as the sun's lower corona or photosphere. Solar winds generally contain a lot of hydrogen, because hydrogen tends to be attracted to solar winds. This is very different from helium because helium is not attracted to solar winds. The sun loses small amounts of energy because solar winds strip parts of atoms (protons and electrons) from it. Solar winds absorb more than a million tons of mass from the sun every second, but the mass of our sun is such that such mass is considered virtually nothing. The solar heliosphere is invaded by solar winds. Solar winds have less and less pressure as they move away from the sun. At 100 AU from the sun, solar winds cannot balance on their own because it is interstellar space..