A tightly twisted phone cord snaps and scatters sparks. Magnetic fields on the Sun behave the same way: they twist, break, and reconnect, powering flares. For the first time, astronomers have witnessed this process directly. One loop was twisted by 540 degrees — one full turn and then half again. That’s three times more than previously thought possible. The break happened at only one end, and hot gas burst out, explaining the heating of the solar corona.
At the break site, hard X-rays were detected — direct evidence that reconnection accelerates particles. Scientists uncovered a pattern: the frequency of plasma pulsations is directly tied to the magnetic field strength. This rule works everywhere — from black holes to neutron stars and magnetars. Now, simply by watching the tremors, we can measure an object’s magnetic field anywhere in the Universe.
The solar loop was so twisted that if it were a rubber band, you’d have to twist it one and a half times before it snapped.