Solar-B Spacecraft to Look at Solar Flare

The Solar-B spacecraft, to be launched Sept. 22 from Japan’s Uchinoura Space Center, will conduct the most intensive solar flare studies to date.

Solar flares are tremendous explosions on the surface of the sun, releasing as much energy as a billion megatons of TNT in the form of radiation, high energy particles and magnetic fields.

While scientists understand the flaring process, they cannot predict when they will occur. The Solar-B mission, designed and built by teams from the United States, Britain and Japan, will investigate the so called trigger phase of such events.

Solar flares are fast and furious — they can cause communication black-outs on Earth within 30 minutes of a flare erupting on the sun’s surface, said University College London Professor Louise Harra, the Solar-B lead scientist. It’s imperative we understand what triggers these events with the ultimate aim of being able to predict them with greater accuracy.