Why Does A Flare Happen At All?
Where does all the energy in a flare come from and why does it get released
all of a sudden?
A flare starts out in the centre of the Sun, but ends up
near the surface. Compared to the amount of total energy the Sun
emits every second, a flare energy release is still pretty small- only
about one tenth.
The biggest clue to why flares happen is the magnetic
field. In active regions, the
magnetic field
gets strong and twisted, then snaps like a balloon popping. The
magnetic energy is changed into thermal energy and kinetic energy, it
gets very hot, with stuff flying around all over the place. X-ray
light can be `soft' (big wavelengths, lower energy) or `hard' (short
wavelengths, higher energy) like the colours in visible light. The
hard X-rays indicate where lots of energetic particles come from.
