Half Light Speed: White Light Solar Flares
The phenomenon’s new explanation derives from data recorded from a 2006 solar flare. The presence of high-energy X-rays in the same spot that scientists saw visible light tipped them off that some kind of non-thermal process was generating the light.
“These explosions are particle accelerators,” said Säm Krucker, of the Space Science Laboratories at the University of California, Berkeley. “The whole surprising thing with these flares’ light is that it could simply be heat. But that’s not the case.”