This kind of experimentation provides research to something relevant to all of us, namely the Sun. It's something that very few people put any intense thought into, but is very important to us. There's also quite a bit about it that is not understood and every little bit helps, due to our dependence on its existence and how various unusual and not-well-understood (or not understood at all) phenomena can affect us.
Two quotes from the article stand out to me:
First:
"In space, molecular diffusion draws oxygen to the flame and combustion products away from the flame at a rate 100 times slower than the buoyant flow on Earth"
Talk about a slow burn...
When one considers that less than 2% of the Sun is something other than Hydrogen and Helium, and Oxygen being only another chunk of that 2% with other elements having their chunks of that respective small percentage, that quote gives us considerable insight into why the Sun and other stars burn for as long as we believe they do.
Second:
"Thus far, the most surprising thing we've observed is continued apparent burning of heptane droplets after flame extinction under certain conditions. Currently, this is entirely unexplained"
With that perspective, I wonder what unusual phenomena we might now observe (or have been observing) with the idea that there is likely burning ejecta from the sun that we might not ordinarily detect as they are much less visible without any flames.
Of course, the second quote does bring up questions about what strange phenomena might be happening terrestrially or already observed unusual terrestrial phenomena may be closer to being explained with that observation.
This second quote from the article definitely merits more research.