The highest and brightest solar energy

Nisa, who will soon be joining MSU's faculty, is the corresponding author of a new paper in the journal Physical Review Letters that details the discovery of the highest-energy light ever observed from the sun. The international team behind the discovery also found that this type of light, known as gamma rays, is surprisingly bright.

Their new analysis pipeline determined that this emission was coming from the Sun, with a 6.3 sigma probability. It's not the highest energy light ever seen in space.

The most energetic light ever seen emanating from the Sun has just been detected, creating a new puzzle for solar physicists to solve. A 6-year observing campaign by more than 30 institutions across North America, Europe, and Asia has resulted in the first ever detection of solar gamma radiation in the teraelectronvolt (TeV) range.

The sun cannot be this bright at these energies.'" Upon deliberation, however, the team realized that such brightness definitely existed — and it was simply due to the sheer amount of gamma rays the sun seemed to be spitting out. "The sun is more surprising than we knew," Nisa said. Before you start worrying, no, these rays can't harm us.

The flare produced such an outpouring of gamma rays – a form of light with even greater energy than X-rays – that the sun briefly became the brightest object in the gamma-ray sky.

The sun's rays may be stronger than scientists previously thought, new research suggests. Using a highly sophisticated telescope, a team of researchers recorded the highest-energy light ever detected from the sun, reaching up to nearly 10 trillion electron volts, according to a study published August 3 in the journal Physical Review Letters.