A group of Chinese solar physicists have recently found a possible explanation for a myth about the Sun that had lasted for more than 30 years.

The myth concerns solar tsunamis, which are caused by powerful solar events like solar flares and ripples in the Sun's corona, the outermost layer – a bit like tsunamis on Earth, which are caused by events like earthquakes and ripple in the ocean.

Thanks to modern observation technologies, humans have managed to record hundreds of solar tsunamis.

But here's the problem: the solar tsunamis leave almost no imprints on the Sun's chromosphere – the second lowest layer of the Sun's atmosphere after the photosphere.

"Why the chromosphere rarely bears the imprints of solar tsunamis remained a mystery since their discovery three decades ago," said a research paper published recently in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The paper's authors, led by Zheng Ruisheng from Shandong University, proposed a possible explanation for this contradiction.

The imprints will only be left if the powerful solar events – or eruptions – are "highly inclined."

To put it in simple terms, the angle matters.

"At the beginning, it was just a small idea," Zheng told CGTN Digital. "Then we went through all the recordings we can find."

Zheng said their hard work on examining the data led to the result. "I'm confident that this explanation is correct."

The research on solar tsunamis can be important because it may give scientists a way to understand the cause of solar eruptions, and more critically, how the solar storms that came after the eruptions affect Earth and humans' lives.

"We will go on working on this topic," Zheng said. "The next step is to find proof for our explanation."