Rain is the shedding of liquid water from clouds through convection. Clouds are essentially a thick mass of water vapor gas. This vapor can develop into liquid water and then drop to the ground through condensation when it becomes too heavy for the cloud to hold onto.
The rain is an important part of the natural world, supplying fresh water for plants and animals to survive on. Without it we could see thousands of species go extinct.
Besides being an essential part of the natural world, rain also helps reduce air pollution on Earth. In fact, it can decrease smog and help to cleanse the air in urban areas by lowering the amount of dirt that floats into the air.
While rain on Earth is made from droplets of water vapor, plasma, an electrically charged gas, forms when the magnetic loops that form around our star's surface interact with each other. This magnetic loops can be formed either through active regions in the solar system or after a flare that disturbs the magnetic field.
When these magnetic loops connect to the star's surface, they form a corona, a layer of hot plasma that surrounds the sun. The corona is millions of degrees Fahrenheit hotter than the sun's surface. So astronomers were intrigued to learn that plasma from these magnetic loops can drip on the star's surface as a "coronal rain."
