The Incredible Secret Behind the Sun's Flares.

Money Explainers

A 50-year-old enigma has been solved! A new study reveals that the strange width of spectral lines in solar flares is not due to turbulence, but because ions are heated 6.5 times more than electrons. The Sun continues to reveal its secrets! #Science #Sun #Astrophysics #MysterySolved

Transcript

00:0050-Year Solar Mystery Solved

00:02The incredible secret behind the sun's flares

00:06Since the 1970s, an enigma has baffled solar scientists

00:11The strange width of spectral lines during solar flares

00:15For decades, it was thought that this expansion was caused by turbulent motions in the solar plasma

00:21However, this explanation never quite fit

00:25Leaving a large gap in our understanding of how solar flares truly work

00:29But now, after 50 years, a new study from the University of St. Andrews has revealed a surprising solution

00:37Solar flares are violent events that release enormous amounts of energy

00:41Heating the sun's outer atmosphere to more than 10 million degrees Celsius

00:46These explosions not only bombard Earth with radiation

00:50But they also give us clues about the physics of stars

00:53One of the biggest mysteries has been the unusual width of the spectral lines

00:58Those light signatures that the plasma emits during flares

01:03The turbulence theory never fully explained the phenomenon

01:06And the problem persisted for half a century

01:09The key to solving this enigma came from a change in perspective

01:13Historically, scientists assumed that the ions and electrons within the plasma had the same temperature

01:20However, the research team led by Dr. Alexander Russell discovered something fundamental

01:25The magnetic reconnection process

01:28Responsible for heating the plasma

01:31Heats ions 6.5 times more than electrons

01:35Although this phenomenon had already been observed near Earth and in the solar wind

01:40It had never been linked to solar flares

01:42By redoing the calculations with this new understanding

01:47The team realized that the incredibly high temperatures of the ions persist for minutes in the most crucial parts of the flares

01:53What was previously attributed to turbulence is now largely explained by the extreme heat of these ions

02:01This new view fits perfectly with observations and offers an unexpected and convincing solution to a 50-year-old mystery

02:09This discovery is a reminder that sometimes

02:12The key to solving great mysteries is not in seeking new answers

02:16But in re-evaluating old assumptions

02:18The sun, our closest star, continues to surprise us

02:23Revealing its secrets, ion by ion

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