Students at the University of Colorado Boulder research, publish science study challenging trending theory, solve mystery

BOULDER, Colo. (KDVR) – A team of some 1,000 undergraduate students at the University of Colorado Boulder were recruited by a team of physicists to help solve a mystery about the sun.

The question has long puzzled even veteran astrophysicists: How can the surface of the sun be cooler than its outermost atmosphere?

Students at CU Boulder contributed an estimated 56,000 hours researching, and what they found challenged a popular astrophysics theory.

The contradicting theory

Telescopic evidence suggests the outermost atmosphere, or corona, burns at temperatures in the millions of degrees Fahrenheit. Yet, the surface of the sun is much cooler at only thousands of degrees, according to CU Boulder.

“That’s like standing right in front of a campfire, and as you…