Still image of several supra-arcade downflows, also described as “dark, finger-like features,” occurring in a solar flare. The downflows appear directly above the bright flare arcade. This solar flare occurred on June 18, 2015. Credit: NASA SDO
In January 1999, scientists observed mysterious motions within a solar flare.
Unlike typical flares that showed bright energy erupting outwards from the Sun, this solar flare also displayed a downward flow of motion, as if material was falling back towards the Sun. Described as “downward-moving dark voids,” astronomers wondered what exactly they were seeing.
Now, in a study published today (January 27, 2022) in Nature Astronomy, astronomers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (
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