Invisible ‘flickering’ on the Sun could predict dangerous solar flares

Shining loops of plasma on the surface of the Sun ‘flicker’ hours before they unleash potentially dangerous solar flares. The new findings could help create more reliable space weather forecasts. Solar flares are violent outbursts of electromagnetic radiation that shoot from the Sun when invisible magnetic field lines at the Sun’s surface get twisted up until they eventually snap. These outbursts most commonly occur around sunspots – dark patches where magnetic field lines poke through our star’...