Scientists crack a 50-year solar mystery with a scorching discovery

Scientists crack a 50-year solar mystery with a scorching discovery

Scientists from the University of St Andrews have discovered that ions in solar flares can reach scorching temperatures more than 60 million degrees—6.5 times hotter than previously believed. This breakthrough challenges decades of assumptions in solar physics and offers a surprising solution to a 50-year-old puzzle about why flare spectral lines appear broader than expected.