Detecting these auroras on the Sun could change our understanding of magnetic processes in stars, Yu said. Auroras on Earth occur when energized solar particles pass at high speed through the atmosphere in regions near the Earth’s poles. These areas have the least protection from the magnetic field, so particles pass through and excite nitrogen and oxygen molecules, resulting in sheets of color dancing across the sky, known in the northern hemisphere as the aurora borealis or aurora borealis.
Typically, on the Sun, the magnetic field twists near a sunspot, causing the sunspot to form a knot before breaking and ejecting debris from the sun’s surface. This releases energy that triggers solar flares or explosions of radiation known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which are explosions of solar material. Scientists believe that these solar flares accelerate electrons past the sunspot’s magnetic field lines, resulting in the emission of radio waves similar to auroras.