transcript
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Why do some solar eruptions blast into space while others never make it?
SETI Institute heliophysicist Dr. Becca Robinson talks with Dr. Kathy Reeves of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian about new research revealing what can stop a solar eruption in its tracks.
Using observations of a failed solar eruption in March 2024, Reeves and her colleagues examined how the Sun's complex magnetic fields can both drive an eruption upward and ultimately prevent it from escaping. Their research shows how magnetic reconnection above an eruption can weaken it, while strong overlying magnetic fields act as a kind of cage, trapping the material before it can develop into a coronal mass ejection.
Understanding why some solar eruptions succeed while others fail could improve our understanding of space weather—and may even help explain why astronomers see powerful flares on other stars but relatively few stellar coronal mass ejections.
What determines whether an eruption escapes? What can this event teach us about the Sun's magnetic environment? And what could it tell us about space weather around other stars and planets?
Press release: https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/astronomers-uncover-why-some-solar-eruptions-die
