How a powerful blast left the Sun and then mysteriously fell back

Key points

• Scientists have captured one of the clearest and most detailed observations ever of a massive solar eruption that failed spectacularly, a powerful blast from the Sun that began like a dangerous coronal mass ejection but suddenly collapsed back onto the solar surface.
• The rare event, recorded in March 2024, is helping astronomers solve a long-standing mystery about why some violent solar eruptions escape into space while others die moments after they begin.
• Read Full Story The eruption began with an intense solar flare erupting from a highly active and magnetically tangled region of the Sun.
• A giant prominence, a dense ribbon of relatively cool solar gas suspended by magnetic fields, rose dramatically above the Sun’s surface.
• Under normal circumstances, such eruptions often evolve into coronal mass ejections (CMEs), giant explosions that hurl billions of tonnes of charged plasma into space.