The Solar Orbiter operated by NASA and ESA has managed to take the closest picture of the Sun – which could help solve solar mysteries, as does the CME.
The Sun’s orbit, managed jointly by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), has made history. The spacecraft has taken the closest picture of the Sun. The image showcases the star in its fiery aura and reveals never-before-seen details. Extremely high-quality images were taken by the orbiter after it zoomed into the Sun on March 7, when the spacecraft was passing directly between the Earth and the Sun. The photos are also special because they were not only taken from extremely close distances, but also highlight the caliber of spacecraft imaging tools that can withstand and handle such bright light and still deliver stabilize image. The photos will also help resolve some myths as well as solar flares or circular mass ejections (CMEs).
The ESA announced the feat on March 24, highlighting the “unprecedented” image taken by the Solar Orbiter. It explains that two photos were taken. First taken with the Ultraviolet Imager (EUI), it is “the highest-resolution image of the circular disk and outer atmosphere of the Sun, the corona, ever taken”. The second image was taken by the Spectral Imaging of the Coronary Environment (SPICE) instrument and it shows “the first full Sun image of its kind in 50 years and by far the best , captured at the Lyman-beta wavelength of ultraviolet light. emitted by hydrogen gas”.
NASA and ESA that manage Solar Orbit make a history first
Capturing these images was no easy task as the Sun’s radiation and heat both make capturing clear images a challenge. The Solar Orbiter operated by NASA and ESA was about 75 million kilometers away when it captured these images. At that distance, it’s roughly half the size of the Sun and our planet. The final image contains over 83 million pixels in a 9148 x 9112 pixel grid. For comparison, it’s ten times the resolution a 4K TV can display.
“EUI’s High Resolution Telescope captures images of such high spatial resolution that, at close proximity, a mosaic of 25 individual images is required to cover the entire Sun. Taken in turn, the entire image was captured over a period of more than four hours as each tile took about 10 minutes, including the time it took for the spacecraft to navigate from one segment to the next. speak ESA in its announcement.
What do these images reveal about the Sun?
For years, scientists were puzzled by the behavior of the Sun. One of the most characteristic yet unique features of our host star is that the Sun’s temperature shows anomalies as you ascend to the surface. “Normally the temperature will drop as you move away from the hot object. But above the Sun, the corona reaches a million degrees Celsius while the surface is only about 5000 °C. Investigating this mystery is one of the important scientific goals of the Solar Orbiter,” said ESA. .
These images highlight the Solar Orbiter’s ability to see the Sun in a better way. The spacecraft can observe the star as solar flares or ambient mass ejections (CMEs) are discharged to precisely monitor its behavior and understand how temperatures start at a lower point and rise. up afterwards.
