Episode IV: The QuEST for Flares

[Music] Episode 4 - The QuEST for flares The Sun often releases flares explosive events occurring in the solar atmosphere. They were discovered in England in the 19th century. Indeed, the first flare was observed by Richard Carrington in 1859, at Red Hill Observatory, south of London. Before talking about his discovery let’s get to know Carrington. He graduated in theology at Trinity College Cambridge when he was 23. But his real passion was astronomy.

After graduating, he joined the Observatory of Durham University, 01:21 - where he studied stars, comets, and asteroids. Sadly, the observatory was not well equipped. After many complaints he decided to resign and build his own telescope. With that telescope, Carrington made more than 5,000 observations of sunspots over seven and a half years. And then, on the 1st of September 1859, something unusual happened… Two very intense beams of light appeared next to the sunspot he was observing. “While engaged in the forenoon of Thursday, September 1, in taking my customary observation of the forms and positions of the solar spots, an appearance was witnessed which I believed to be exceedingly rare”. The event was observed independently by Richard Hodgson with his telescope. “I also observed it”. One day later, Scottish physicist Balfour Stewart detected its effects on magnetometer records taken at Kew Observatory. “And me! I recorded it”. But… what exactly did Carrington, Hodgson, and Stewart see? That day, the strongest solar flare on record unleashed its fury.

02:42 - As we learned in previous episodes, sunspots have strong magnetic fields. Sometimes, the fields reconnect with each other and release huge amounts of energy radiation and particles. These events are called flares. They are the most energetic phenomena observed in the Solar System, but last only a few minutes. Some flares create solar storms, gusts of charged particles that travel through space at high speed and may reach the Earth. When the particles enter the Earth’s atmosphere near the poles, they produce auroras.

03:21 - In addition, solar storms disrupt telecommunications and can cause power outages. The super flare of 1859 was so strong that auroras were seen in such remote places as Greenland… Cuba… Peru… In some places, telegraphs went on fire… … and in others, they worked without power. Carrington could not understand the nature of the event he had witnessed because his observations did not provide any information on the sunspot magnetic field With the European solar telescope we will be able to measure magnetic fields in flares and see how they evolve with time. This will allow us to understand flares and even predict them! .