Using the world’s largest solar telescope, a team of scientists has captured one of the most detailed views ever of a microflare – a small yet powerful solar explosion. The images are helping scientists understand the complexity of magnetic fields powering the Sun’s smallest outbursts.

The new research uses unparalleled data from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) to reveal how magnetic fields deep in the Sun’s lower atmosphere can suddenly reconnect and unleash bursts of energy, heat, and plasma—an explosive process known as magnetic reconnection.

The research was published last month by a team of scientists at two organizations: the NSF National Solar Observatory and the NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR),

“We found that the reconnection occurred along a dome-shaped magnetic structure known as a fan-spine configuration, complete with a magnetic null point and enhanced squashing factors,” said Robert Jarolim, NSF NCAR scientist and co-author of the study. “This had been predicted in simulations and hinted at in coarser observations, but now we could see it clearly.”

The findings address longstanding questions about how small-scale reconnection works in the upper photosphere and low chromosphere, regions of the solar atmosphere that are notoriously difficult to observe. While larger solar flares have been widely studied, these microflares are more elusive—yet potentially just as important for understanding how the Sun’s energy ultimately affects the space environment around Earth.

Learn more about the research on the National Solar Observatory website. 

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