Powerful flares and a curious patch of “spikes” stretching 15,000 miles across the Sun dubbed “the hedgehog” are among the latest images from the Solar Orbiter.
The UK-built spacecraft’s closest approach to the Sun, known as perihelion, occurred on March 26, taking it inside Mercury’s orbit, about a third of the distance between the Sun and the Earth.
It captured a series of “breathtaking” images, including views across the solar poles and of several solar flares, offering a taste of real-time space weather forecasting.
This is becoming increasingly important due to the threat space weather poses to technology and astronauts.
Another eye-catching feature that Solar Orbiter captured was nicknamed “the hedgehog” due to its multitude of hot and cold gas spikes extending in all directions.
Powerful flares and a curious patch of ‘spikes’ stretching 15,000 miles across the sun dubbed ‘the hedgehog’ (pictured) are among the latest images from the Solar Orbiter
The UK-built spacecraft captured a series of ‘truly breathtaking’ images, including views of the solar poles (pictured)
Solar Orbiter’s closest approach to the Sun, known as perihelion, occurred on March 26 (pictured), taking it inside Mercury’s orbit, about a third the distance between the Sun and the Earth.
Caroline Harper, Head of Space Science at the UK Space Agency, said: “It is hugely exciting to see these incredible images and footage; the closest we’ve ever seen to the Sun, captured on Solar Orbiter’s closest pass so far.
“We are already seeing fascinating data returned by the scientific instruments aboard this UK-built spacecraft, bringing us closer to understanding how natural events on the surface of the Sun contribute to space weather.
“Not only are we learning from the images Solar Orbiter returns, but also from what it ‘feels’ as it approaches the Sun, including solar flares and a recent coronal mass ejection.”
The Solar Orbiter carries 10 science instruments – nine led by European Space Agency member states and one by Nasa – all working together to provide unprecedented insight into how the Sun works.
The main scientific purpose of the orbiter is to explore the connection between the Sun and the heliosphere – the great bubble of space that extends beyond the planets of our solar system.
It is filled with electrically charged particles, most of which have been expelled by the Sun to form the solar wind.
It is the movement of these particles and the associated solar magnetic fields that create space weather.
The probe also took photos of several solar flares (pictured), offering a taste of real-time space weather forecasts.
Solar activity such as flares and giant flares known as coronal mass ejections are driven by magnetic activity from the Sun (pictured)
The next set of images captures a solar flare emerging from the Sun after being filmed by the Solar Orbiter
The Solar Orbiter carries 10 science instruments – nine led by European Space Agency member states and one by Nasa – all working together to provide unprecedented insight into how the Sun works
The orbiter’s main scientific goal is to explore the connection between the Sun and the heliosphere – the great bubble of space that extends beyond the planets of our solar system.
The spacecraft’s next – and slightly closer – perihelion pass will be on October 13 at 0.29 times the Earth-Sun distance.
The next – and slightly closer – perihelion pass will occur on October 13 at 0.29 times the Earth-Sun distance.
Before that, on September 4, it will make its third flyby of Venus.
David Berghmans of the Royal Observatory of Belgium and principal investigator of the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager Instrument (EUI), which takes high-resolution images of the lower layers of the Sun’s atmosphere, known as the solar corona , hailed the images as ‘truly breathtaking’.
The EUI team’s task now is to understand what they are seeing.
It’s not easy because Solar Orbiter reveals so much activity on the Sun on a small scale.
After spotting a feature or event they can’t immediately recognize, the team must then dig into past solar observations from other space missions to see if anything similar has been seen before.
“Even if Solar Obiter stopped taking data tomorrow, I would be busy for years trying to figure this all out,” Berghmans added.
ESA’S SOLAR ORBITER: THE BRITISH-BUILT SPACECRAFT WILL BE THE FIRST TO CAPTURE IMAGES OF THE POLAR REGIONS OF THE SUN
Solar Orbiter is a European Space Agency mission with NASA support to explore the Sun and our host star’s effect on the solar system, including Earth.
Solar Orbiter (artist’s view) is a European Space Agency mission to explore the sun and its effects on the solar system. Its launch is scheduled for 2020 from Cape Canaveral in Florida in the USA.
The satellite launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida in February 2020 and reached its first close approach to the sun in June 2020.
It was built in Stevenage, England, and is loaded with a carefully selected set of 10 telescopes and direct detection instruments.
Solar Orbiter will fly less than 43 million kilometers from the solar surface to closely inspect the poles of our star.
Scientists study how the sun’s violent outer atmosphere, also known as the corona, forms.
It was built in Stevenage, England and is loaded with a carefully selected set of 10 telescopes and direct detection instruments
This is the region from which the “solar wind” – storms of charged particles that can disrupt electronics on Earth – is blown out into space.
Using Solar Orbiter, researchers hope to find out what triggers solar storms so they can better predict them in the future.
The Solar Orbiter’s heat shields are expected to reach temperatures of up to 600°C (1,112°F) during its closest flybys.
It will work closely with NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, which was launched in August 2018, and is also studying the solar corona.
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