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Scientists Spot a Solar Flare With Surprising Spectral Behavior

On August 19, 2022, solar astronomers using the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) on the Hawaiian island of Maui caught the fading remnants of a C-class solar flare. Their observations showed something unusual: very strong spectral fingerprints of calcium II H and hydrogen-epsilon lines. It was the first time these two light signatures were seen in great detail during the decline of a solar flare. According to computer models, those lines were stronger than expected and play a not well-understood role in how flares heat the solar atmosphere where they occur. The same models can be used to study flares in other stars, as well.

Spectra are produced when the light from an object, in this case, the Sun, passes through a specialized instrument that breaks the light into its component wavelengths. The light can be emitted, absorbed, or reflected. Solar flares always provide interesting spectral lines, and this one was no different. In the case of the flare on August 19th, light was emitted by energized molecules of calcium II H and hydrogen-epsilon. These two are close together in the solar spectrum and provide a window into what’s happening in the solar chromosphere. That’s the complex layer of the solar atmosphere between the visible surface (photosphere) and corona (outer atmosphere). These absorption lines indicate ionized calcium in the atmosphere, and are clues to chromospheric activity and the strength of magnetic fields in the regions where they exist.

A visible image of the Sun on August 19, 2022, showing sunspots and their active regions, including 3078 where the DKIST observed unusual spectral lines. Courtesy CESAR Helios Observatory.

It hasn’t always been easy to study these spectral lines in solar flares from Earth, usually due to constraints on telescope time and instrumentation. The DKIST was able to capture these thanks to its high-resolution capabilities. The lines in the August 2022 studies not only surprised the observers, but also revealed weaknesses in their models of solar physics. When the science team led by student observer Cole Tamburri compared the observations with current computer models that simulate how flares are heated, they found that their models could reproduce some features, but failed to fully explain others. The observed light signatures were broader and differed in brightness in ways the models can’t yet explain, particularly as they showed up when the flare was declining. Apparently, there are more complex physics at work that computer simulations of the complex physics of a flare don’t quite take into account. Data from these observations will be used to strengthen the models for future use.

How a Solar Flare Unfolds

To understand the surprise in the spectra during the flare’s decline, let’s take a look at how a solar flare works from start to finish. First, there’s a precursor stage. That’s when the local magnetic fields over an active region get entangled, like twisted rubber bands. This phase shows soft x-ray emissions. As the fields get more twisted, the flare progresses to the impulsive (explosive) stage. That’s where the magnetic fields break and release strong amounts of stored energy in the form of high-energy protons and electrons are accelerated and speed away from the Sun. This stage also shows intense x-ray emissions, gamma rays, and radio waves. The flare brightens in response. Eventually, the flare begins to decline and this decay stage sees the flare’s energy levels start to settle down and the region cools down. That’s what the models tell scientists to expect. Current models suggest that the heating during a flare happens either by beams of high-energy particles or by heat spreading through the solar atmosphere.

This sequences shows the evolution of a bright flare ribbon using the Visible Broadband Imager on the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope. The flare occurred in active region 13078. Credit: Tamburri, et al.

The team originally had hoped to use DKIST to capture the precursor, “ramp-up” stage of this C6.7-class flare. Instead, they captured the end stage, when activity and emissions were declining. Their observations showed spectral lines for the calcium II H and hydrogen-epsilon emissions that didn’t match what was expected for the declining stage of a flare. That told the scientists that the flare’s emissions stayed stronger and more complex than they expected even as the flare cooled and decayed.

Reality vs. Models

The surprising observational data, made using the DKIST Visible Spectropolarimeter (ViSP) and the Visible Broadband Imager, gave the team a high-cadence, high-resolution set of spectra and provided simultaneous, high-resolution imaging needed to reveal the physical structure of the flare itself. “Both ground-based, high-resolution observing and state-of-the-art flare modeling are incredibly complex,” said Tamburri, who noted that a large team of scientists was required to make observations and analyze the data. “The combined expertise from many NSO scientists in both regimes made this work possible. Collaboration of this type is essential to solving the remaining questions in flare physics using both modern observations and models.”

(a) A comparison of a RADYN+RH simulated Ca II H and H lines to observations made by the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope.. (b) A comparison of ViSP observations to the modeled H profiles that are notably in emission in panel (a), using in the input RH atmosphere file. Note also the locations of several other lines within the spectral range of H, from Fe I, Fe I, and Ni I. The two Fe I lines in the red wing are deeper in the quiet Sun than the flare spectra, giving the impression of an emission line when the pre-flare is subtracted. Intensity values include pre-flare subtraction and are normalized to the maximum intensity of H in order to easily compare the widths of observed and modeled lines. The observed line profiles from ViSP at ribbon center at 20:42:07 UT are shown in black. This is a figure from a paper describing the observations (see references below). Courtesy Tamburri, et al.

Team members compared the emissions data they obtained from DKIST with current theoretical physics models for flares, using a computational model called RADYN. It simulates how the solar atmosphere gets heated by flare activity. It turned out that the data agreed with some parts of the models but not others. For example, the physical models actually agreed with the data regarding the shape and width of the hydrogen-epsilon line. However, the models didn’t exactly match the calcium II H line shape. The light signatures were very different from what the models suggested. That leaves a big gap to explain how flares heat the solar atmosphere.

The NSO researchers behind the study say improving these models will require rethinking how flare heating works. More observations during solar flare events using DKIST should help strengthen the current models of solar atmospheric heating. In particular, they should be able to use detailed observations of the impulsive (explosive) and cooling phases to test new ideas about how flares behave through all the phases of their activity.

For More Information

New Solar Flare Observations Challenge Leading Theories

Spectroscopic Analysis and RHD Modeling of the First Ca II H and H-epsilon Flare Spectra from DKIST/ViSP

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A Long Island Rail Road Strike May Be Near. Here’s What to Know.

America’s busiest passenger rail service will shut down on Saturday if workers and transit officials cannot agree on a new contract.

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Dark Matter May Have Left Its Fingerprint in a Gravitational Wave.

A Horseshoe Einstein Ring from Hubble 1 20260515 070108

Dark matter is everywhere. It accounts for the vast majority of matter in the universe, yet it has no interaction with light, magnetism, or any other force along the electromagnetic spectrum. It passes through everything, through planets, through stars and even through you without leaving a trace. One of the only ways we know it exists at all is through the way it bends space around distant galaxies, adding extra pull that ordinary matter alone cannot explain.

Finding direct evidence of dark matter has been one of the great unsolved challenges of modern physics. Now a team led by MIT postdoctoral physicist Josu Aurrekoetxea has proposed a new and unexpected way to look for it, not by building detectors on Earth, but by reading the gravitational waves that arrive from black hole mergers across the universe.

The rotation rate of spiral galaxies (such as M77 captured here) is just one of the ways that dark matter reveals itself (Credit : NASA/ESA)

The idea hinges on a remarkable phenomenon called superradiance. The idea is that dark matter consists of extraordinarily light particles, many orders of magnitude lighter than an electron and that behave not just as individual particles but as coordinated waves when they encounter a rapidly spinning black hole. When those waves brush against a spinning black hole, the black hole’s own rotational energy transfers to the dark matter, amplifying it to extreme densities. The researchers describe it as like churning cream into butter, a diffuse ingredient concentrated into something far denser and more structured.

This process creates a thick dark matter cloud swirling around the black hole. When a second black hole spirals in to merge with it, it passes through that cloud. The interaction leaves a distinctive imprint on the gravitational waves produced by the merger, a subtle but specific pattern that differs from a merger in empty space.

The MIT team built a model that predicts exactly what that imprint should look like, then applied it to publicly available data from the LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA gravitational wave observatories, screening 28 of the clearest signals from their first three observing runs.

“We know that dark matter is around us. It just has to be dense enough for us to see its effects. Black holes provide a mechanism to enhance this density, which we can now search for by analysing the gravitational waves emitted when they merge,” – Josu Aurrekoetxea from MIT

Twenty seven showed exactly what you’d expect from black holes merging in a vacuum. But the twenty eighth, a signal catalogued as GW190728, showed something different. A pattern consistent with dark matter involvement.

LIGO Hanford Observatory (Credit : LIGO Observatory)

The team are careful to stop short of claiming a detection, since this is a hint and not a confirmation. But it is the first time a gravitational wave signal has been flagged as a candidate dark matter imprint using a rigorous physical model, and it demonstrates that the technique works.

LIGO’s fourth and fifth observing runs are generating gravitational wave detections at an unprecedented rate. Each new signal is another opportunity to screen for the fingerprint. If the team are right, dark matter has been hiding in plain sight for decades and we may finally have found a way to catch it.

Source : A new way to spot signs of dark matter

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Dodgers pitcher, horse racing jockeys linked to cockfighting in Puerto Rico

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A Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher and two of the top jockeys in horse racing were allegedly linked to illegal cockfighting in Puerto Rico through social media posts, according to reporting from USA Today.

The article, published Thursday, highlights social media posts advertising cockfighting tournaments that picture three-time All-Star closer Edwin Díaz in his Dodgers uniform and an article in El Nuevo Día, the largest circulating newspaper in Puerto Rico, quoting Díaz.

Brothers and jockeys Jose Ortiz and Irad Ortiz, who finished first and second, respectively, in the Kentucky Derby this month were advertised as participants in a cockfighting tournament in 2025, according to the outlet.

Representatives for Díaz and the Ortiz brothers did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday. Diaz and the Ortiz brothers were born in Puerto Rico where cockfighting has been a longstanding cultural tradition, a massive industry and a source of tension between the U.S. territory and the federal government.

In 2019, a federal law banning cockfighting took effect in Puerto Rico. Before the law, the blood sport had been made illegal in all 50 states, but not U.S. territories. Many Puerto Ricans saw the ban as an attack on their culture and vowed to defy the law.

Puerto Rico responded by passing a law saying that it’s legal to host cockfights as long as people don’t export or import the animals or any goods or services related to cockfighting. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2021 declined to hear a challenge to the federal law brought by a group that argued Congress exceeded its power by applying the ban to Puerto Rico.

In the El Nuevo Día story, which published in March, Díaz is quoted talking about cockfighting, saying it was a pastime he’d followed since he was a child. He was attending a tournament in which his family entered four roosters, according to the article.

“It’s legal in Puerto Rico, thank God. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here,” he said in Spanish. “It’s something I’ve done since childhood, something my dad instilled in me.”

The Dodgers signed Díaz to a three-year, $69-million contract in December 2025. Last month, the team announced that Díaz was having surgery to remove “loose bodies” in his right elbow and would be out until the second half of the season.

A Facebook post by Club Gallistico de Puerto Rico on Dec. 17, 2025, pictures the Ortiz brothers and lists them as participants in a cockfighting event. The post, which is in Spanish, notes that the brothers excel in international horse racing, but also have a passion for cockfighting.

“Brothers Irad and José Luis Ortiz accepted the challenge of participating in the ‘Caribbean Grand Champion’ tournament with a single goal: to become undisputed champions,” the post read in Spanish.

Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming, which is charged with regulating horse racing, launched an investigation after receiving reports that Irad Ortiz and Jose Ortiz were participating in a cockfighting event, Travers Manley, the senior vice president of gaming and media relations for the organization, wrote in a statement to The Times. It is not clear when the investigation specifically began.

“The investigation included the stewards meeting with Irad and Jose. Following the investigation, KHRG stewards elected not to take administrative action against them,” Manley wrote.