2025-10-30 - Solar Fireworks: The Sun Unleashed

Dr. Laura Hayes from DIAS Astronomy and Astrophysics brought us on a solar journey as part of Samhain agus Science 2025

Our Sun is more than a steady source of light, it is a stormy star that regularly erupts in solar flares. These explosive bursts are like cosmic fireworks, releasing immense energy and radiation that race through space. These outbursts can paint our skies with ghostly auroras, but also threaten the technology we rely on here on Earth. In this talk, Dr Laura Hayes will reveal how and why the Sun unleashes such spectacular flares, show dramatic new observations from ESA’s Solar Orbiter mission, and explain why unlocking the mysteries of our star is essential for protecting our modern world.

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Dr Laura Hayes is a solar physicist at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, where she leads a research group focused on solar flares, storms, and their role in driving space weather. She works on the European Space Agency (ESA)’s Solar Orbiter mission, using its X-ray telescope to study how the Sun unleashes energy and impacts Earth. Before returning to Dublin, she held research positions at both NASA and ESA.

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Now in its eighth year, Samhain agus Science brings together researchers from DIAS and around the world for a series of free events that take inspiration from the Celtic festival of Samhain and look at the dark side of science.

The festival aims to make the big scientific questions of our time and Celtic history relevant, accessible, and fun to a general audience who might not normally be familiar with these topics.