OSSE Solar Flare Spectrum
On June 4, 1991, the OSSE instrument observed a bright high-energy flare from an intensely active region of the sun. The energy spectrum of the flare shown in this slide indicates that solar flares accelerate particles to extremely high energies causing interactions which produce nuclear emission lines from excited atomic nuclei of Fe, Mg, Ne, Si, C, O, and N, along with emission lines from the formation of deuterium by neutron capture (labeled "n" in the slide) and electron-positron annihilation (labeled "e+").
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