Harvard study explains why some solar eruptions fail to launch

There is something almost dramatic about a star that tries to hurl a billion tonnes of magnetised plasma into space and simply cannot pull it off.

It builds, it strains, it rises and then it stops as if it never happened.

Scientists call these events failed eruptions, and while they have been observed before, nobody has fully understood why they occur.

A new study from the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard & Smithsonian has now provided the most detailed answer yet.

Using data from five spacecraft simultaneously, the team identified a double magnetic process that strangled the eruption from both above and below.