Solar Flares
A solar flare is an explosion in a solar atmosphere and was originally detected visually in our own sun. Solar flares create massive amounts of radiation across the full electromagnetic spectrum from the longest wavelength, radio waves, to high energy gamma rays. The correlations of the high energy electrons energized during the flare and the gamma rays are mostly caused by nuclear combinations of high energy protons and other heavier ions. These gamma-rays can be observed and allow scientists to determine the major results of the energy released, which is not provided by the emissions from other wavelengths. Nuclear gamma rays were observed from the solar flares of August 4 and 7, 1972, and November 22, 1977.
Read more about this topic: Gamma-ray Astronomy
Famous quotes containing the word solar:
“Senta: These boats, sir, what are they for?
Hamar: They are solar boats for Pharaoh to use after his death. They’re the means by which Pharaoh will journey across the skies with the sun, with the god Horus. Each day they will sail from east to west, and each night Pharaoh will return to the east by the river which runs underneath the earth.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)