Events in Physics

Cool material in the form of prominences and coronal rain can be ubiquitous in the solar atmosphere and occurs over a wide range of heating conditions, from the quiescently heated corona to the flaring regime. Numerical modelling indicates that both quiescent and flare-driven coronal rain is the product of specific spatial and temporal distribution of the unknown heating events powering the quiescent and flaring corona. In this talk I will present on-going  observational and numerical studies that illustrate how coronal rain can be used to constrain key coronal quantities involved in coronal heating and flaring, and also the crucial role that it can play in determining how the heating occurs. I will also draw parallels to cool plasma in other astrophysical contexts (circumgalactic and intracluster media), and show how coronal rain can be used to test accretion braking theories.