Scientists may have solved the physics behind massive and violent "superflares" that rip free from stars thousands of times as bright as the sun.
Our host star regularly erupts with solar flares that can impact Earth and, if strong enough, disrupt communications and power infrastructure on a global scale. But these solar flares are mere child's tantrums compared to the thousands of "superflares" that NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and now defunct Kepler space telescopes have seen blasting from stars between 100 and 10,000 times brighter than the sun.
