noun
definition
The faint pink extension of a star's atmospheric envelope between the corona and the photosphere
Examples of chromosphere in a Sentence
This is an upper layer in the solar atmosphere called the chromosphere.
The chromosphere, which surrounds the photosphere, is a cloak of gases of an average depth of 5000 m., in a state of luminescence less intense than that of the photosphere.
In the general solar spectrum this element is represented by a large number of lines, but in the spectrum of the prominences and chromosphere one pair only can be detected.
Enclosing the photosphere is a truly gaseous envelope which is called the chromosphere, and which shows a spectrum of bright lines when we can isolate its emission from that of the photosphere.
If the spot spectrum is compared with that of the chromosphere it appears that the lines of most frequent occurrence in the latter are those least affected in the spot, and the high level chromospheric lines not at all; the natural interpretation is that the spot is below the chromosphere.
The features seen differ according to the line used, as the circumstances prevailing at different levels of the chromosphere call out one line or another with greater intensity.
The helium formations do not reach the sun's limb, and it is another puzzling detail that the spectrum of the disk shows no absorption line of anything like an intensity to correspond with the emission line of helium in the chromosphere.
The first, made by Sir William Ramsay in 1896, was that the mineral evolved a peculiar gas when treated with sulphuric acid; this gas, helium (q.v.), proved to be identical with a constituent of the sun's atmosphere, detected as early as 1868 by Sir Norman Lockyer during a spectroscopic examination of the sun's chromosphere.
In the higher chromosphere on occasions metallic gases are carried up to such a level that without an eclipse a bright line spectrum of many elements may be seen, but it is always possible to see those of hydrogen and helium, and by opening the slit of the spectroscope so as to weaken still further the continuous spectrum from the photosphere (now a mere reflection) the actual forms of the gaseous structures called prominences round the sun's rim may be seen.
The chromosphere adds the three last of the list.