It is raining PLASMA on the sun: Most detailed images captured of solar flares reveal bright spots and coronal downpours

  • Solar flares travel at the speed of light, give no warning they're coming
  • Researchers now captured most detailed pictures yet of the processes
  • Because of detail bright spots seen which might have been missed before
  • Nasa also published separate study of solar flare captured in 2013

The scorching hot atmosphere around the sun is not the most likely place you would expect to find rain, but scientists have captured images of downpours of plasma in our stars corona.

This 'coronal rain' was spotted following a huge solar flare bursting out from the surface of the sun in some of the most detailed images of these events ever captured.

Solar flares are intense bursts of light from the sun, caused when complicated magnetic fields suddenly and explosively rearrange themselves, converting magnetic energy into light.

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New images captured by the New Solar Telescope (NST) at the Big Bear Observatory, New Jersey, show a solar flare and 'coronal rain' captured in June last year (pictured). Coronal rain is plasma that condenses in the cooling phase shortly after the solar flare, showering the visible surface of the sun where it lands in explosions

New images captured by the New Solar Telescope (NST) at the Big Bear Observatory, New Jersey, show a solar flare and 'coronal rain' captured in June last year (pictured). Coronal rain is plasma that condenses in the cooling phase shortly after the solar flare, showering the visible surface of the sun where it lands in explosions

The pictures are helping scientists unravel some of the most important puzzles of solar physics and has revealed a previously unseen phenomena - bright spots within the flares themselves.

Taken by the New Solar Telescope at the Big Bear Observatory, New Jersey, the images show a solar flare and 'coronal rain' falling back towards the sun in June last year.

Coronal rain is plasma - super-heated, electrically charged gas - that condenses in the cooling phase shortly after the solar flare.

WHAT ARE SOLAR STORMS? 

Solar storms are eruptions on the sun causing the emission of huge quantities of particles.

If they hit Earth, the particles interact with Earth's magnetic field, which guides them towards polar areas where they cause northern or southern lights (auroras).

There have been major solar storms in recent years leading to power outages, such as the one in October 2003 in Sweden and in March 1989 in Canada.

The extreme solar storms that scientists now have seen traces of in ice cores were at least ten times larger than those observed in recent decades.

In the moments after a solar flare it showers the visible surface of the sun where it lands after the explosions.

Capturing these events has proved to be difficult in the past as the signatures of solar flares are hard to detect.

The new images are the highest resolution observations of solar flare activity ever recorded. 

'We can now observe in very fine detail how energy is transported in solar flares, in this case from the corona where it has been stored to the lower chromosphere tens of thousands of miles below it, where most of the energy is finally converted into heat and radiated away,' said Professor Ju Jing, lead author of the study.

He said the new observations provide new information on the scale of the energy transport.

Capturing these events has proved to be difficult in the past as the signatures of  solar flares are hard to detect.
In the moments after a solar flare it showers the visible surface of the sun where it lands after the explosions.

The video below shows bright 'flare ribbons' (picture right) seen crossing a sunspot followed by coronal rain, showing what happens on the sun when a solar flare triggers plasma to shower the surface of the star 

The images show bright 'flare ribbons' seen crossing a sunspot followed by coronal rain.

Due to the high detail of the images, bright spots that might have been missed before were captured.

Professor Dale Gary, a co-author of the study, described the images as 'the highest-resolution observations of this kind of activity we've had before.' 

'What is particularly interesting is that these bright areas of impact are so small in size that they have been present, but overlooked in previous observations with lower resolution,' Professor Gary added.

New images provide insights into the complex dynamics of the sun's multi-layered atmosphere and the massive eruptions on the star's surface. An IRIS slit-jaw image of the solar flare in June 2015 (pictured) have provided the highest-resolution observations of this kind of activity we've had before

New images provide insights into the complex dynamics of the sun's multi-layered atmosphere and the massive eruptions on the star's surface. An IRIS slit-jaw image of the solar flare in June 2015 (pictured) have provided the highest-resolution observations of this kind of activity we've had before

How energy is transferred from one region of the sun to another during and after a solar flare is still not very well understood.

WHAT THE NEW IMAGES SHOW 

Professor Dale Gary, a co-author of the study, described the images as 'the highest-resolution observations of this kind of activity we've had before.'

The images show bright 'flare ribbons' seen crossing a sunspot followed by coronal rain. 

The new images provide insights into the complex dynamics of the sun's multi-layered atmosphere and the massive eruptions on the star's surface. 

The newly revealed bright spots will lead, the researchers hope, to a better understanding of their impact on Earth.

The new images provide insights into the complex dynamics of the sun's multi-layered atmosphere and the massive eruptions on the star's surface.

'Ever since a solar flare was first detected by Carrington and Hodgson in 1859, this spectacular phenomenon of solar activity has been a subject of intense research and has served as a natural laboratory for understanding the physical processes of transient energy release throughout the universe,' Professor Jing said.

The newly revealed bright spots in the solar flares could lead to a better understanding of the impact of solar flares on the Earth.

'Our measurements bridge the gap between models and observations, while also opening interesting avenues of future investigation,' Professor Jing said.

'With large, ground-based telescopes, will we will be able to measure, for example, these features on the Sun's surface down to their fundamental spatial scale. We look forward to further investigation coupled with theoretical modelling to fully understand what we have observed.'

Bright areas of impact are so small in size that they have been present, but overlooked in previous observations with lower resolution. The superimposed dots (pictured) show the locations of footpoint brightenings in the image sequence. White contours are magnetic polarity inversion lines

Bright areas of impact are so small in size that they have been present, but overlooked in previous observations with lower resolution. The superimposed dots (pictured) show the locations of footpoint brightenings in the image sequence. White contours are magnetic polarity inversion lines

NASA IS CONSTANTLY  WATCHING THE SUN

The sun emitted a mid-level solar flare this week, peaking on 17 April.

Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the sun constantly, captured an image of the event.

The sun emitted a mid-level solar flare this week, peaking on 17 April. Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the sun constantly, captured an image of the event

The sun emitted a mid-level solar flare this week, peaking on 17 April. Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the sun constantly, captured an image of the event

Another study, published on Tuesday, described a solar flare captured by Nasa in December 2013.

Three separate solar observatories captured observations of an electromagnetic phenomenon called a current sheet, strengthening the evidence that our understanding of solar flares is correct. 

The current sheet is a long, thin structure, especially visible in the views on the left. The animations depict light emitted by material with higher temperatures, so they show the extremely hot current sheet better.

The animation shows four views of the flare. The current sheet is a long, thin structure, especially visible in the views on the left. Those two animations depict light emitted by material with higher temperatures, so they better show the extremely hot current sheet.

The animation shows four views of the flare. The current sheet is a long, thin structure, especially visible in the views on the left. Those two animations depict light emitted by material with higher temperatures, so they better show the extremely hot current sheet.

Unlike other space weather events, solar flares travel at the speed of light, meaning we get no warning that they're coming.

So scientists want to pin down the processes that create solar flares, and even some day predict them before our communications can be interrupted.

'The existence of a current sheet is crucial in all our models of solar flares,' said Dr James McAteer, an astrophysicist at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces and an author of a study on the December 2013 event. 

'So these observations make us much more comfortable that our models are good.'

Better models lead to better forecasting, said Dr Michael Kirk, a space scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who was not involved in the study. 

'These complementary observations allowed unprecedented measurements of magnetic reconnection in three dimensions,' Dr Kirk said.

Magnetic reconnection is the name for the process by which complicated magnetic fields suddenly and explosively rearrange themselves, converting magnetic energy into light.

'This will help refine how we model and predict the evolution of solar flares.'