In a new paper in Nature Communications Physics, researchers led by Yi-Hsin Liu look at how the roiling coils of plasma in the outer layers of the Sun can reconnect and release energy. Working for first principles – like when a math or science teacher asks you to prove a theory from base equations – they worked out how energy flows out of a system when the north and south parts of a field come together. 

The basic physics behind what they studied is used in all kinds of different sensors, including the ones that tell your iPad or AirPod Max headphones to turn off when they’re in their case. The details, however, are a lot harder to work out when the magnets involved are the ions and electrons moving in the Sun’s plasma.

But solving hard things is why a lot of folks go into physics, and this team has a solid model that makes solid predictions, and conveniently our Sun is moving into a much more active period and should be providing all the flares this team needs to confirm and refine their work.

So next time you flip closed a flip phone, know you are relying on the same physics seen in the Sun.

More Information

NASA Goddard press release

“First-principles theory of the rate of magnetic reconnection in magnetospheric and solar plasmas,” Yi-Hsin Liu et al., 2022 April 28, Nature Communications Physics