Editing Stellar corona (section)

===Spicules (type II)===
For decades, researchers believed spicules could send heat into the corona. However, following observational research in the 1980s, it was found that spicule plasma did not reach coronal temperatures, and so the theory was discounted.

As per studies performed in 2010 at the ''National Center for Atmospheric Research'' in [[Colorado]], in collaboration with the ''Lockheed Martin's Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory'' (LMSAL) and the ''Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics'' of the [[University of Oslo]], a new class of spicules (TYPE II) discovered in 2007, which travel faster (up to 100&nbsp;km/s) and have shorter lifespans, can account for the problem.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rediff.com/news/slide-show/slide-show-1-mystery-of-suns-hot-outer-atmosphere-solved/20110107.htm |title=Mystery of Sun's hot outer atmosphere 'solved' |work=Rediff |date=2011-01-07 |access-date=2012-05-21 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120415111049/http://www.rediff.com/news/slide-show/slide-show-1-mystery-of-suns-hot-outer-atmosphere-solved/20110107.htm |archive-date=2012-04-15 }}</ref> These jets insert heated plasma into the Sun's outer atmosphere.

The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory and NASA's Focal Plane Package for the Solar Optical Telescope on the Japanese Hinode satellite were used to test this hypothesis. The high spatial and temporal resolutions of the newer instruments reveal this coronal mass supply.

According to analysis in 2011 by de Pontieu and colleagues, these observations reveal a one-to-one connection between plasma that is heated to millions of degrees and the spicules that insert this plasma into the corona.<ref>{{cite journal | doi = 10.1126/science.1197738 | last1 = De Pontieu | first1 = B. | last2 = McIntosh | first2 = S. W. | last3 = Carlsson | first3 = M. | last4 = Hansteen | first4 = V. H. | last5 = Tarbell | first5 = T.D. | last6 = Boerner | first6 = P. | last7 = Martinez-Sykora | first7 = J. | last8 = Schrijver | first8 = C. J. | last9 = Title | first9 = A. M. | title = The Origins of Hot Plasma in the Solar Corona | journal = Science | volume = 331| issue =  6013  | pages = 55–58| year = 2011 | pmid = 21212351|bibcode = 2011Sci...331...55D | s2cid = 42068767 }}</ref>