European Space Agency

A serendipitous encounter by the European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter has allowed scientists to trace a giant magnetic switchback directly back to the Sun's corona, resolving a long-standing debate about where these kinks in the solar magnetic field form. The findings, published in Nature Astronomy, show that the plasma inside the switchback originated in an ultra-hot closed magnetic loop near a coronal hole, consistent with the process of interchange reconnection.