See The 'Rosetta Stone' Solar Eruption In This Awesome Footage

Space.com

Nearly a decade ago, an explosion on the sun "contained components of three different types of solar eruptions".  Studying the eruption could unlock mysteries on how they occur.  Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Transcript

00:00An unusual eruption on the sun may offer clues to understanding our star's mysterious explosions.

00:09Solar eruptions are massive releases of material off the surface of the sun.

00:16This material can travel across the solar system, to Earth and Mars.

00:26The radiation and the material from the sun can interact with the planet's magnetic fields,

00:31affecting astronauts and technology.

00:36Eruptions on the sun usually come in one of three forms.

00:41Coronal mass ejections, jets, and partial eruptions.

00:47The new research studied an event named the Rosetta Stone of solar eruptions.

00:53Just as the Rosetta Stone was the key to understanding Egyptian hieroglyphics,

00:57studying this eruption could be the key to understanding all types of solar eruptions.

01:04In the Rosetta Stone eruption, all three types of eruptions happened in the same event.

01:10They usually occur separately.

01:14The main eruption was too big to be a jet, but too narrow to be a coronal mass ejection.

01:20A second, cooler layer of material on the surface of the sun also started to erupt about a half an hour later.

01:27But it fell back down as a partial solar eruption.

01:33This Rosetta Stone of solar eruptions will also give clues to help scientists predict large eruptions in the future.

01:42The better our predictions are, the more time we have to prepare for material from the sun to interact with Earth's magnetic field.

01:52Predicting large solar eruptions can help better protect our astronauts and technology near Earth and beyond.

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