Scientists Spot a Solar Flare With Surprising Spectral Behavior

The Sun as it appeared in H-alpha on September 18, 2022. Solar physicists used the Daniel K. Inouye solar telescope to zero in on the active region at the lower right on September 19, 2022, at the end of a very busy week of solar activity. Courtesy CESAR Helios Observatory.

On August 19, 2022, astronomers using the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) on the Hawaiian island of Maui caught the fading remnants of a C-class solar flare. Their observations showed something unusual: very strong spectral fingerprints of calcium II H and hydrogen-epsilon lines. It was the first time these two light signatures were seen in great detail during a flare. According to computer models, those lines were stronger than expected and play a not well-understood role in how flares heat the solar atmosphere where they occur.

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Researchers Match Up 12 Meteorites with the Near-Earth Asteroids They Came From

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