Solar flares are effective surges produced by the Sun.

They happen when energy saved in twisted electromagnetic fields is all of a sudden launched through a procedure referred to as ‘reconnection.’

In a matter of minutes, criss-crossing electromagnetic field lines of opposite instructions break and after that reconnect.

The newly-reconnected field lines can rapidly warm up and speed up million-degree plasma, and even high-energy particles, far from the reconnection website, possibly producing a solar flare.

The most effective flares might begin a chain of responses that cause geomagnetic storms in the world, maybe activating radio blackouts, which is why it is so essential to keep an eye on and comprehend them.

The fine-grained information of how precisely this humungous quantity of energy is launched so quickly has actually stayed badly comprehended.

The extraordinary set of brand-new Solar Orbiter observations– from 4 of the objective’s instruments operating in enhance to supply the most total photo of a solar flare ever made– lastly has an engaging response.

High-resolution images from Solar Orbiter’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) focused to functions simply a couple of hundred km throughout in the Sun’s external environment (its corona), catching modifications every 2 seconds.

3 other instruments– SPICE, STIX and PHI– examined a series of depths and temperature level programs, from the corona to the Sun’s noticeable surface area, or photosphere.

“We were truly extremely fortunate to witness the precursor occasions of this big flare in such lovely information,” stated Dr. Pradeep Chitta, an astronomer at limit Planck Institute for Solar System Research.

“Such in-depth high-cadence observations of a flare are not possible all the time since of the minimal observational windows and since information like these use up a lot memory area on the spacecraft’s onboard computer system.”

“We actually remained in the best location at the correct time to capture the great information of this flare.”

The Solar Orbiter observations exposed a thorough image of the main engine of the pre-flare and spontaneous stages of a solar flare in the type of a magnetic avalanche.

“We saw ribbon-like functions moving very rapidly down through the Sun’s environment, even before the primary episode of the flare, “Dr. Chitta stated.

“These streams of ‘drizzling plasma blobs’ are signatures of energy deposition, which get more powerful and more powerful as the flare advances.”

“Even after the flare subsides, the rain continues for a long time.”

“It’s the very first time we see this at this level of spatial and temporal information in the solar corona.”

“We didn’t anticipate that the avalanche procedure might cause such high energy particles.”

“We still have a lot to check out in this procedure, however that would require even greater resolution X-ray images from future objectives to actually disentangle.”

“This is among the most amazing arise from Solar Orbiter up until now,” stated ESA’s Solar Orbiter co-project researcher Dr. Miho Janvie.

“Solar Orbiter’s observations reveal the main engine of a flare and stress the essential function of an avalanche-like magnetic energy release system at work.”

“An intriguing possibility is whether this system occurs in all flares, and on other flaring stars.”

The outcomes appear in the journal Astronomy & & Astrophysics

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L.P. Chitta et al2026. A magnetic avalanche as the main engine powering a solar flare. A&A 705, A113; doi: 10.1051/ 0004-6361/2025 57253