Image of the solar corona taken during the 2017 solar eclipse. Credit: Chen, Tian, Su, et al Astrophys JTwo Indian astrophysicists with international collaborators have provided the first direct observational evidence to explain the mechanisms that give rise to ubiquitous jet-like eruptions of solar material observed across the Sun’s surface. Their studies suggest that the interaction of magnetic fields of opposite polarity — North and South — through a process that solar physicists call magnetic flux cancellation provides the energy for the eruptions called solar spicules. The scientists working with collaborators in Austria, China, Germany, Hungary, the UK and the US have proposed that the magnetic field interactions they documented can drive spicules and hot solar material into the corona. They relied on ultra-high resolution images of the solar surface that allowed them to probe the interactions of solar magnetic fields and how they influenced eruptions from the Sun’s surface.

Source: The Telegraph November 16, 2019 20:46 UTC