Auroras shine light on solar flares

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Auroras shine light on solar flares

Astrophysicists at the University of Glasgow are looking to the Northern and Southern Lights to expand our understanding of solar flares.

In a new paper published in the Astrophysical Journal, researchers from the University’s School of Physics and Astronomy suggest magnetic waves, which contribute to the formation of auroras on Earth, could help energy from solar flares travel tens of thousands of kilometres in under a second.

Solar flares are the largest explosions in the solar system – cosmic blasts more powerful than tens of millions of hydrogen bombs which fill the solar system with UV light, X-rays, high-energy particles and vast bubbles of magnetic field and plasma.

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