Solar research: NASA sounding rocket instrument spots signatures of long-sought small solar flares
Like most solar sounding rockets, the second flight of the FOXSI instrument — short for Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager — lasted 15 minutes, with just six minutes of data collection. But in that short time, the cutting-edge instrument found the best evidence to date of a phenomenon scientists have been seeking for years: signatures of tiny solar flares that could help explain the mysterious extreme heating of the Sun’s outer atmosphere. …read more
