Shining loops of plasma on the surface of the sun "flicker" hours before they unleash potentially dangerous solar flares, a new study shows. The new findings could help create more reliable space weather forecasts, researchers say.
Solar flares are violent outbursts of electromagnetic radiation that shoot from the sun when invisible magnetic field lines at the sun's surface get twisted up until they eventually snap. These outbursts most commonly occur around sunspots — dark patches where magnetic field lines poke through our home star's surface — and often pull up plasma from the sun's surface into shimmering horseshoe shapes, known as coronal loops, before they blow their top.
