ESA's Solar Orbiter will help space boffins predict desctructive coronal ejections

The European Space Agency's (ESA) Solar Orbiter probe has pinpointed the source of electrons expelled by the Sun, with implications for forecasting space weather.

The mission has been able to split the flood of particles flung into space from the Sun into two groups, one connected to intense solar flares and the other to coronal mass ejections (CMEs). The findings are significant for understanding space weather. A CME event, which tends to hold more high-energy particles, can be very damaging to spacecraft. Hence, being able to distinguish between the two types of events as quickly as possible is critical for accurate forecasting.

Scientists have long known that these two types of solar energetic electron (SEE) events occur, but the data collected by close-up observations of the Sun by the probe have allowed them to pinpoint how they form and leave the surface of the star.

"We were only able ...