news/blog

English

_ga_KD86FPRYBX

__browsiSessionID

__browsiUID

FCCDCF

client_geo_country

__session

Domain 'www.thebrighterside.news' uses the .news top-level domain; it also runs on subdomain 'www'. The second-level label 'thebrighterside' is 15 characters long holding 5 vowels versus 10 consonants. Tokenizing the label suggests 3 words: the, brighter, side. Expect four characters per word on average. No strong language cues emerged from the frequency lists.

html/61/34/61347023-9084-4434-82f9-7ab482e708a5_fallback.html.gz

First-ever images of powerful X1.3-class solar flare captured by solar telescope - The Brighter Side of News

html/61/34/61347023-9084-4434-82f9-7ab482e708a5.html.gz

script-src 'report-sample' 'nonce-x1Jjpwbx0q4ZHtMbrFRTnA' 'unsafe-inline';object-src 'none';base-uri 'self';report-uri /_/ContributorServingWebSwitchboardHttp/cspreport;worker-src 'self', script-src 'unsafe-inline' 'unsafe-eval' blob: data: 'self' https://apis.google.com https://ssl.gstatic.com https://www.google.com https://www.googletagmanager.com https://www.gstatic.com https://www.google-analytics.com;report-uri /_/ContributorServingWebSwitchboardHttp/cspreport/allowlist, require-trusted-types-for 'script';report-uri /_/ContributorServingWebSwitchboardHttp/cspreport

instaread_playlist

Audio Article 

__pb_locator__

__tcfapiLocator

googlefcInactive

googlefcLoaded

9d1d8328a2ada149ecd30689c1d6872001f78b88e8809b8b8743ab8c0518e485

b051674b20e716839ceb594ff84b53cd3c9ffb3180efc7a30f23203c5303c364

3ecf0e8820d48ed90b5c1ad5eecaab6d498df37e83b0fb2cc3b76d1149cb00a9

2186448ecd8db2a51e255dd21bf3ae786900de2f9f28dccb1c29f1a370099692

c4cf443888f5cddb8ff01dcabb1688d9dd3b6b54289989a8937207a71eb3fd5d

5b7dd863e7fef81a9ea224b21f22c2c9cf69e2bf5e8dbb3649fc0bb55cf617a1

a7eadaf179a5e15785914a04b91a5d4a02208e93576fccd8da843ead69784577

ba938dfd6248c1a109cc7246cb09ef5b385f1feac51036bb0f24421a15215086

13c79ec9033c8bb73051573ba234af2c30709128411f5a7b64e9780c931e9605

d17b81cbdab14495266e2949bbff1d8a1516ec47d5525854f2f196f716f48cac

356a6c67206c2a3eca8c240ef7ebd89bfacf184813fc5e2007dd45e6657151a1

66d9607c3f1cc2fb00ad153accdd842b1c2d214024d6652da7b08ec01761405a

421843112ef4bff4c22a3392532ddeb9956ea957638d9e7bf76671465f9d2445

7e636fb972c2e351ed70e3273d3f14241d67685b790c27e6c0ae26339ace6562

6dfbe468e8b43edd274c464c8d91ea142c96f221bf7e19e2acf79450821955dd

16d8f1ffbcd0e19ce5c26ea394061685b434907b392fed89c9939f850c7da448

e3b67d9d687130a35680364bf139c97b01e4d147d0369e690a5c4121de2f29e9

1cf3e6d0ce85a08fee4fd2a90152a1a50e8b829c10003981d8f79da6cc2e874c

ddd09205659c4cad5f0d518ff8d007aa489d26a0e5dd1adafa42a23294013642

31e36efcd7773ceff7d86678a8279192603e1bbd97ec9842083a656165a0079c

3a6013ea40e0a98e5319eb697fa65fa04463f30f7e22dd0ff088e4035f335c45

3a04fc008338e4ee4cd3f9ece3795ab80bf9f9112714a30cc045336ad569f3a7

144b03fee3995140727be4284f49f7d6f5c51bd6ccdf5798bec9738c96d11a59

edfe6278835a07660885d53c139f2afcd3b39ba2946df7c8a1b5a6de319a8f14

a423adffcf1d279d12a9691309254ebc1925d4f0c60cc3188b127342fdaac1a7

481d713552f587d3bc0e3683557f8541ea69543e4d7abb7e4299c646ab10fd03

dd640e0d0429c87571897f0bae54481215c1b845355b9c32250db4ad3e627017

97be8d3b3ffb588831c194a84cb32d6fd5bdedd8291bf349f1a1876c96fe3a53

520d6b559e3a6072220fe06459562483c587cba98084fa9aaf15c801c3e888c2

0973c1d64c88adc8e3c950410cb58b288f72118d5965b78049438deb8f2f9683

b0ce8749298e3d2f654cc01b104d3872c69f11331f81a897a87f037216fea955

4828fb1eba93ca8d29d38c84816162fbef3363ff7ac8e653878d85a6e44d1e0b

f3225805a021553e9d0dc5c45a535f0147deed463f72a8eacbce3a23738f05a7

viewport

theme-color

Record-sharp solar flare images reveal ultra-thin coronal loops on the Sun, reshaping flare models and space weather forecasting.

description

highest-resolution solar flare coronal loops

news_keywords

section

sub-section

Astronomy, Research, Science, solar flares, Space News, Space Weather, Sun, telescope

item-id

index, follow, max-image-preview:large, max-snippet:-1, max-video-preview:-1

robots

https://www.thebrighterside.news/uploads/2025/11/solar-flare.webp?auto=webp

First-ever images of powerful X1.3-class solar flare captured by solar telescope

https://www.thebrighterside.news/post/first-ever-images-of-powerful-x1-3-class-solar-flare-captured-by-solar-telescope/

twitter:card

twitter:description

twitter:image

twitter:title

author

twitter:label1

twitter:data1

twitter:label2

twitter:data2

next-head-count

AlK2UR5SkAlj8jjdEc9p3F3xuFYlF6LYjAML3EOqw1g26eCwWPjdmecULvBH5MVPoqKYrOfPhYVL71xAXI1IBQoAAAB8eyJvcmlnaW4iOiJodHRwczovL2RvdWJsZWNsaWNrLm5ldDo0NDMiLCJmZWF0dXJlIjoiV2ViVmlld1hSZXF1ZXN0ZWRXaXRoRGVwcmVjYXRpb24iLCJleHBpcnkiOjE3NTgwNjcxOTksImlzU3ViZG9tYWluIjp0cnVlfQ==

Amm8/NmvvQfhwCib6I7ZsmUxiSCfOxWxHayJwyU1r3gRIItzr7bNQid6O8ZYaE1GSQTa69WwhPC9flq/oYkRBwsAAACCeyJvcmlnaW4iOiJodHRwczovL2dvb2dsZXN5bmRpY2F0aW9uLmNvbTo0NDMiLCJmZWF0dXJlIjoiV2ViVmlld1hSZXF1ZXN0ZWRXaXRoRGVwcmVjYXRpb24iLCJleHBpcnkiOjE3NTgwNjcxOTksImlzU3ViZG9tYWluIjp0cnVlfQ==

A9nrunKdU5m96PSN1XsSGr3qOP0lvPFUB2AiAylCDlN5DTl17uDFkpQuHj1AFtgWLxpLaiBZuhrtb2WOu7ofHwEAAACKeyJvcmlnaW4iOiJodHRwczovL2RvdWJsZWNsaWNrLm5ldDo0NDMiLCJmZWF0dXJlIjoiQUlQcm9tcHRBUElNdWx0aW1vZGFsSW5wdXQiLCJleHBpcnkiOjE3NzQzMTA0MDAsImlzU3ViZG9tYWluIjp0cnVlLCJpc1RoaXJkUGFydHkiOnRydWV9

A93bovR+QVXNx2/38qDbmeYYf1wdte9EO37K9eMq3r+541qo0byhYU899BhPB7Cv9QqD7wIbR1B6OAc9kEfYCA4AAACQeyJvcmlnaW4iOiJodHRwczovL2dvb2dsZXN5bmRpY2F0aW9uLmNvbTo0NDMiLCJmZWF0dXJlIjoiQUlQcm9tcHRBUElNdWx0aW1vZGFsSW5wdXQiLCJleHBpcnkiOjE3NzQzMTA0MDAsImlzU3ViZG9tYWluIjp0cnVlLCJpc1RoaXJkUGFydHkiOnRydWV9

A1S5fojrAunSDrFbD8OfGmFHdRFZymSM/1ss3G+NEttCLfHkXvlcF6LGLH8Mo5PakLO1sCASXU1/gQf6XGuTBgwAAACQeyJvcmlnaW4iOiJodHRwczovL2dvb2dsZXRhZ3NlcnZpY2VzLmNvbTo0NDMiLCJmZWF0dXJlIjoiQUlQcm9tcHRBUElNdWx0aW1vZGFsSW5wdXQiLCJleHBpcnkiOjE3NzQzMTA0MDAsImlzU3ViZG9tYWluIjp0cnVlLCJpc1RoaXJkUGFydHkiOnRydWV9

HSTS header missing - vulnerable to protocol downgrade attacks

CSP header missing - vulnerable to XSS attacks

child-src 'none';object-src 'none';require-trusted-types-for 'script';script-src chrome://resources 'self';trusted-types;worker-src blob: 'self';frame-ancestors 'none';

child-src https:  chrome-untrusted://new-tab-page/ chrome-untrusted://ntp-microsoft-auth/;connect-src chrome://resources chrome://theme 'self';default-src 'self';font-src chrome://resources 'self';img-src chrome://resources chrome://theme chrome://image chrome://favicon2 chrome://app-icon chrome://extension-icon chrome://fileicon blob: data: 'self';object-src 'none';require-trusted-types-for 'script';script-src chrome://resources chrome://webui-test 'self';style-src chrome://resources chrome://theme 'self' 'unsafe-inline';trusted-types parse-html-subset sanitize-inner-html static-types webui-test-script webui-test-html polymer-html-literal polymer-template-event-attribute-policy lit-html-desktop;frame-ancestors 'none';

child-src 'none';object-src 'none';require-trusted-types-for 'script';script-src chrome://resources 'self';trusted-types;frame-ancestors 'none';

base-uri 'none';child-src https:;form-action https://ogs.google.com https://*.corp.google.com;object-src 'none';script-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline' https:;frame-ancestors chrome://new-tab-page/

GoDaddy.com, LLC

thebrighterside.news

Amazon EC2 Abuse

IP Management

Amazon AWS Network Operations

Amazon Technologies Inc.

AWS RPKI Management POC

IP Routing

Amazon EC2 Network Operations

AT-88-Z


    window.cnxProxyTask = function(task) {
        setTimeout(function(){
            task();
        }, 0);
    }


solar flare

Joseph ShavitScience News Writer, Editor-At-Large and Publisher
Joseph Shavit, based in Los Angeles, is a seasoned science journalist, editor and co-founder of The Brighter Side of News, where he transforms complex discoveries into clear, engaging stories for general readers. With experience at major media groups like Times Mirror and Tribune, he writes with both authority and curiosity. His work spans astronomy, physics, quantum mechanics, climate change, artificial intelligence, health, and medicine. Known for linking breakthroughs to real-world markets, he highlights how research transitions into products and industries that shape daily life.

https://www.thebrighterside.news/uploads/2024/04/joseph.jpeg?auto=webp

Joseph Shavit

Joshua ShavitScience & Technology Writer and Editor
Joshua Shavit is a Los Angeles-based science and technology writer with a passion for exploring the breakthroughs shaping the future. As a co-founder of The Brighter Side of News, he focuses on positive and transformative advancements in AI, technology, physics, engineering, robotics and space science. Joshua is currently working towards a Bachelor of Science in Business and Industrial Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. He combines his academic background with a talent for storytelling, making complex scientific discoveries engaging and accessible. His work highlights the innovators behind the ideas, bringing readers closer to the people driving progress.

https://www.thebrighterside.news/uploads/2025/08/ChatGPT-Image-Aug-26-2025-12_15_11-PM.png?auto=webp

Joshua Shavit

From 93 million miles away, the Sun just got a lot more personal. Astronomers have now seen some of its finest magnetic threads in sharper detail than ever before, and those tiny features could change how you think about solar storms that shake life on Earth.Catching a Monster Flare in the ActOn August 8, 2024, a powerful X1.3-class flare exploded from the Sun. These are among the most energetic events our star can produce. As the flare settled down, the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope locked on at just the right moment.Using an instrument tuned to the H-alpha wavelength of 656.28 nanometers, the team watched the flare’s decay phase unfold. In that red slice of light, the Sun’s lower atmosphere glows and fine structures stand out. What appeared above the bright flare ribbons stunned the researchers.They saw hundreds of dark, hair-thin arches of plasma, known as coronal loops, draped over the bright flare region like threads of ink over fire. These loops followed the Sun’s twisted magnetic field lines with a delicacy scientists had only guessed at before.“This is the first time the Inouye Solar Telescope has ever observed an X-class flare,” said lead author Cole Tamburri, a Ph.D. student at the University of Colorado Boulder supported by the Inouye Solar Telescope Ambassador Program. “These flares are among the most energetic events our star produces, and we were fortunate to catch this one under perfect observing conditions.”Seeing the Smallest Loops EverCoronal loops are not new to solar physics. They arch above active regions all the time. What is new here is their size.By combing through the sharpest images from the telescope’s Visible Broadband Imager, the team measured the loops’ widths. On average, they were about 48.2 kilometers across, with some as thin as 21 kilometers. That is smaller than many large cities on Earth and far below what previous telescopes could resolve.The Inouye instrument can pick out details down to roughly 24 kilometers. That is more than two and a half times sharper than the next-best solar facility. In this observation, it was working right at that limit. “Knowing a telescope can theoretically do something is one thing,” said co-author and National Solar Observatory scientist Maria Kazachenko. “Actually watching it perform at that limit is exhilarating.”Before this, theory suggested coronal loops might sit somewhere between 10 and 100 kilometers wide. No one could see them clearly enough to prove it. “We’re finally peering into the spatial scales we’ve been speculating about for years,” Tamburri said. “Now we can see it directly. These are the smallest coronal loops ever imaged on the Sun.”From Forest to Trees in the Solar CoronaThe team, which includes scientists from the National Solar Observatory, the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences and the University of Colorado, focused on the razor-thin loops woven above the flare ribbons.Coronal loops channel superheated plasma along magnetic field lines. When those fields twist and snap, they help power solar flares and eruptions that can send storms toward Earth. Until now, most models treated those loops as thicker tubes or bundles of many unresolved strands.Perhaps the most exciting idea from this work is that these newly seen loops may be “elementary” structures. In other words, they could be the basic building blocks of the corona. “If that’s the case, we’re not just resolving bundles of loops; we’re resolving individual loops for the first time,” Tamburri said. “It’s like going from seeing a forest to suddenly seeing every single tree.”Getting down to this level matters. Magnetic reconnection, the process that powers flares, happens when field lines break and reconnect on very small scales. To understand where energy is stored and how it explodes outward, you need to know what those small scales look like. This observation finally gives modelers a target size to work with instead of a broad guess.A Serendipitous Discovery in a Flare’s AfterglowThe team did not set out specifically to find ultra-fine loops. The original plan centered on another instrument, the Visible Spectropolarimeter, to study how spectral lines in the Sun’s atmosphere behave during a flare.But the broadband imager had been running at the same time, quietly collecting its own series of images. When the researchers checked those frames, they realized the telescope had caught a flare under nearly perfect atmospheric conditions. The dark loops showed up as crisp, threadlike arcs above the bright ribbons, far clearer than anyone expected.“We went in looking for one thing and stumbled across something even more intriguing,” Kazachenko said. The most striking images show a compact triangular flare ribbon near the center of the view and a sweeping arc-shaped ribbon near the top, all etched with delicate, dark strands that trace the magnetic field above. Even to a casual viewer, the scene looks astonishingly complex.It is also a proof of concept for the Inouye facility itself. The telescope, funded by the National Science Foundation and operated by the National Solar Observatory, was built to push solar imaging to its limits. This is one of the first times it has done so during an X-class flare. “It’s a landmark moment in solar science,” Tamburri said. “We’re finally seeing the Sun at the scales it works on.”What Ultra-Fine Loops Mean For Life Near EarthThe flare observed on August 8 was not just a showpiece. Flares and the storms that follow can disrupt satellites, radio communication and power grids. For people who rely on GPS, internet connections and stable electricity, space weather is no longer an abstract threat.By resolving the smallest coronal loops ever seen, this work pushes flare models into a new regime. If scientists know the true width, shape and arrangement of the magnetic strands that carry energy, they can build more realistic simulations and test how flares grow and fade. Those models feed into space weather forecasts that help protect infrastructure on the ground and in orbit.The study also shows the value of training a new generation of experts. Tamburri is part of the Inouye Solar Telescope Ambassador Program, which supports Ph.D. students as they learn how to process and interpret the telescope’s complex data. Their skills will spread through universities and research centers, making it easier for the broader community to use these powerful observations.As the Sun heads through an active period in its 11-year cycle, more strong flares will erupt. Each one is a chance to point the telescope at new targets and test whether these ultra-thin loops are a common feature. If they are, solar physicists may need to rethink large parts of their playbook.This discovery reaches beyond pure curiosity about the Sun. By resolving coronal loops down to tens of kilometers, scientists now have the first direct measurements of the small-scale magnetic structures that fuel flares. That sharper picture can improve models of when and how solar storms release energy, which in turn can lead to better space weather forecasts for satellite operators, power companies and aviation.If the thin loops seen here are indeed the basic building blocks of the corona, future research can focus on how they twist, reconnect and break. That will help scientists pinpoint the exact scales where magnetic reconnection occurs and where dangerous particles and radiation are launched into space. Over time, this knowledge may help humanity design more resilient technology, plan safer space missions and protect astronauts and spacecraft from high-energy events.For the research community, the result proves that the Inouye Solar Telescope can reach its theoretical resolution during real flares. That opens the door to a new wave of high fidelity studies that probe the Sun at its working scales, not just its broad outlines. It also highlights the importance of training young scientists to handle these complex data sets so that this new level of detail can be fully used in future work.Research findings are available online in the journal The Astrophysical Journal Letters.Related StoriesLike these kind of feel good stories?  Get The Brighter Side of News' newsletter.

https://www.thebrighterside.news/uploads/2024/03/BSN-header-logo-1_fw-e1715375924619.webp?auto=webp

The Brighter Side of News

Record-sharp solar flare images reveal ultra-thin coronal loops on the Sun, reshaping flare models and space weather forecasting.


The Brighter Side of News features good news, compassionate news and inspirational news from around the world.

First-ever images of powerful X1.3-class solar flare captured by solar telescope | The Brighter Side of News

{"props":{"requestHost":"www.thebrighterside.news","pageProps":{"dehydratedState":{"mutations":[],"queries":[{"state":{"data":{"ctaButtonLabel":null,"tagSupportDisable":false,"tagsOnPost":{"displayTag


            (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':
              new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],
              j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src=
              'https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);
            })(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-52LZ3SJ7');
          

window.swpData = {"authorName":"Joseph Shavit,Joshua Shavit","authorId":"30,31","articleId":104962,"articleTitle":"First-ever images of powerful X1.3-class solar flare captured by solar telescope","articleCategory":"Space","internalTags":""}

var adsAllowed=!0,set=[];for(i in set)if(window.location.href.match(set[i])){adsAllowed=!1;break}adsAllowed&&(window.loadScript=function(e,f,b,c,d){var a=document.createElement("script");a.type="text/javascript";a.src=e;f||(a.async=!0);b&&(a.id=b);c&&(a.dataset.pubkey=c);d&&(a.dataset.sitekey=d);document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(a);return a},loadScript("https://cdn.browsiprod.com/bootstrap/bootstrap.js",!1,"browsi-tag","organicly","d_mapping"));

HSTS

Google

Amazon

Quantcast

Microsoft

✅ Low Risk - https://www.thebrighterside.news/post/first-ever-images-of-powerful-x1-3-class-solar-flare-captured-by-solar-telescope/

Requests	IP Address	Location	AS Autonomous System
76	52.37.113.75	Boardman, Oregon, United States	AS16509AMAZON-02
41	146.75.122.132	Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany	AS54113FASTLY
21	172.64.146.152	United States	AS13335CLOUDFLARENET
17	104.18.41.104	United States	AS13335CLOUDFLARENET
12	18.66.147.89	United States	AS16509AMAZON-02
11	52.31.118.46	Dublin, Leinster, Ireland	AS16509AMAZON-02
7	142.251.140.174	United States	AS15169GOOGLE
7	172.217.18.2	United States	AS15169GOOGLE
6	44.227.103.212	Boardman, Oregon, United States	AS16509AMAZON-02
6	13.33.52.91	New York, New York, United States	AS16509AMAZON-02
257	182	-	-

Security Scan Report: www.thebrighterside.news

Summary

AI Security Verdict

Safe Website

Safety Factors

Details

Screenshot

Page Load Overview

Language Analysis

Primary Language

Detection Details

Website Classification

Primary Category

All Detected Categories

Detected Features

Domain & IP Information

Detected Technologies1

Content Similarity HashesFor malware variant detection

Image Hashes

Perceptual Hashes

Other Hashes

Scan History