Animation Shows The Life Cycle of a Solar Flare

Solar flares are explosive, energetic events that release intense radiation from the sun. They are caused by a buildup of magnetic energy — the sun also has an intense magnetic field — and a single flare can release the equivalent of millions of hydrogen bombs all going off at the same time. Now, for the first time, a team led by researchers from the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory have simulated, in detail, the entire life cycle of a solar flare, from its initial buildup through its explosive outburst. The image above is an snippet from the team’s model. In it, violet colors represent plasma with temperatures less than 1 million kelvins (1.8 million degrees Fahrenheit); red colors show plasma with temperatures between 1 million and 10 million K (18 million F), and green shows the hottest plasma, with temperatures above 10 ...