- NASA’s Parker Solar Probe observed solar material ejected and falling back to the Sun
- The probe was 3.8 million miles from the Sun during its Christmas Eve 2024 flyby
- A solar flare and bright plume of superheated material were recorded expanding outward
NASA's Parker Solar Probe has given scientists a clearer look at how the sun behaves during powerful eruptions. In new observations, the spacecraft saw hot solar material rush away from the sun and then partly turn back, falling toward the star again. This rare view helps explain how the sun reuses its energy and may help scientists predict space weather earlier.
These images were recorded during the Parker Solar Probe's historic close flyby of the Sun on Christmas Eve 2024. At that time, the spacecraft was just 3.8 million miles from the Sun's surface. During this close encounter, Parker witnessed a solar flare erupting from the Sun and recorded a bright plume of superheated material spreading into space, reported Space.com.
The material, ejected from the Sun, appeared to expand outward like a puff of breath on a cold morning. After expanding and thinning, some of it curved back toward the Sun. This happened because powerful magnetic field lines broke and then rapidly reconnected, forming new loops. According to NASA, some of these loops extended into space, while others pulled the material back toward the Sun.
Nour Rawafi, a project scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, explained that there had been previous indications that solar material could return in this way, but seeing it so clearly was truly remarkable.
Scientists have classified this event as a coronal mass ejection (CME). A CME is a massive eruption of superheated plasma from the Sun. If such an event were directed toward Earth, it could trigger intense geomagnetic storms, disrupting power grids, radio communications, and satellite navigation, and producing spectacular auroras in the sky.
