Solar Orbiter Traces the Origin of a Mysterious S-Shaped Kink on the Sun

Screenshot from the video “Solar snake spotted slithering across Sun’s surface” by the European Space Agency, ESA. Image credit: ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/EUI Team; acknowledgement: Frédéric Auchère, IAS. CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO. Article by Passant Rabie. Gizmodo – October 12, 2026. Research article: Nature Astronomy.

In 2022, a Sun-observing probe flew through an S-shaped stream of charged particles pouring out of the star. These mysterious kinks, known as a switchback, can help scientists better understand what fuels dangerous solar storms—but their origin has remained a mystery. Now, by fingerprinting the particles that make up this stream, the Solar Orbiter spacecraft was able to pinpoint where it came from. […]

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Video: Solar snake spotted slithering across Sun’s surface – European Space Agency, ESA.