Produced by: Manoj Kumar
After 19 years, scientists finally confirmed how solar flares erupt, watching magnetic field lines “slip-run” at 2,600 km/s, unlocking secrets of the sun’s biggest explosions.
Inspired by Wile E. Coyote’s wild sprints, researchers spotted solar magnetic fields making rapid “slip-running” moves — a cosmic version of cartoon chases now seen on NASA’s IRIS satellite.
NASA’s IRIS satellite captured magnetic field lines slipping and reconnecting like an interstellar game of tag — a process releasing as much energy as millions of hydrogen bombs.
Scientists tracked flare kernels, tiny bright bursts that mark where the sun’s magnetic fields violently reconnect — moving at 1,600 miles per second, faster than any event previously observed.
Since 2005, Guillaume Aulanier’s “slip-running reconnection” theory puzzled scientists — but now, with high-speed imaging every two seconds, the elusive solar dance is finally visible.
A single solar flare releases 10 million times more energy than a volcanic eruption — and now scientists know exactly how those colossal bursts ignite in the sun’s magnetic chaos.
Vanessa Polito says these violent flares happen not just on the sun but on all stars, meaning this discovery could rewrite what we know about stellar explosions across the universe.
Solar flares can knock out satellites, fry power grids, and endanger astronauts — so understanding how they form may help predict and prevent space weather disasters here on Earth.
Each time magnetic fields reconnect in a flare, they unleash plasma jets and radiation across space — and now, for the first time, we’ve caught these light-speed magnetic battles on camera.