Solar flares and magnetic loops

An international team led by University of Cambridge researchers has show how entangled magnetic field lines looping from the Sun's surface slop around each other and lead to an eruption of energy into space – go to http://phys.org/print315136097.html. The paper, published in The Astrophysical Journal, claims the mechanism has only been seen, as yet, in an X Class flare – but is probably also the case with other kinds of flare activity.