Solar flare discoveries to be used to help protect earth technologies

Researchers have taken a step toward gaining a greater understanding of solar flares in a study that focused inside the "central engine."

It's hoped results from the study will help safeguard modern day electronic conveniences such as GPS systems.

An electric current measuring 40,000 kilometers was measured. In addition, researchers witnessed a structure similar to a bottle at the top of the flare’s base that had a height of nearly 20,000 kilometers, the National Science Foundation reported.

The knowledge is expected to be beneficial in predicting potential catastrophic events from solar flares that could have a detrimental impact on technologies, the National Science Foundation reported. The findings were released in a U.S. National Science Foundation-funded research journal, Nature Astronomy.

"One of the major goals of this research is to better understand the fundamental physics of solar eruptions," Bin Chen, the paper's lead author and a physicist at NJIT, told the National Science Foundation. "With this study, we've measured the details of the magnetic field of a current sheet for the first time, giving us a new understanding of the central engine of the sun's major flares."