NASA has observed a new type of magnetic explosion in the hot upper reaches of the sun's atmosphere.

Scientists have previously seen the explosive snap and realignment of tangled magnetic field lines on the sun -- a process known as magnetic reconnection -- but never one that had been triggered by a nearby eruption.

The space agency said the observation confirms a decade-old theory, and it could help scientists understand a key mystery about the sun’s atmosphere, make more accurate predictions of space weather, and lead to breakthroughs in controlled fusion and lab plasma experiments.

“This was the first observation of an external driver of magnetic reconnection,” Abhishek Srivastava, solar scientist at Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), in Varanasi, India, said in a statement. “This could be very useful for understanding other systems. For example, Earth’s and planetary magnetospheres, other magnetized plasma sources, including experiments at laboratory scales where plasma is highly diffusive and very hard to control.”

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According to the space agency, a type of magnetic reconnection known as spontaneous reconnection has been seen previously, both on the sun and around Earth. However, this new explosion-driven type -- called forced reconnection -- had never been seen directly, though it was first theorized 15 years ago.

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The scientists' new observations were just published in the Astrophysical Journal.