The first photos of the Sun so close. Solar Orbiter sends fascinating information
Scientists from the European Space Agency and from NASA have just shown pictures of the surface of the Sun taken by the Solar Orbiter probe. So far, no probe has photographed the Sun from such a short distance.
The Solar Orbiter probe launched towards the Sun on February 9, and in the middle of June made the first close flyby of the Sun.
We have never had photos of the Sun taken from such a short distance before. They will help us to better understand the individual layers of the atmosphere, so we will learn how individual phenomena of space weather arise, which has a direct impact on the Earth and the entire Solar System - says Holly Gilbert, a project scientist from NASA.
I admit that we did not expect such fantastic photos at the beginning of the mission. It's a great start, "adds Daniel Muller, a project scientist at ESA.
The coronavirus did not interrupt scientists
In preparation for the first voyage near the Sun, a coronavirus pandemic forced engineers to close the mission control center at the European Space Operations Center (ESOC) in Darmstadt for over a week. During start-up, when all instruments were passed the last tests, ESOC staff was kept to a minimum and most employees performed their classes from home.
The pandemic forced us to perform critical tasks remotely - this is the first such case in history - says Russell Howard responsible for one of the cameras installed on board.
However, researchers adapted to the situation and even prepared to meet the dust and ion tail of Comet ATLAS on June 1 and 6. All instruments were successfully tested before the first close flight near the Sun, which took place on June 15. Flying a distance of 77 million km from it, the probe launched all 10 instruments and took the closest photos of the Sun in history (other probes were approaching it at shorter distances, but none of them had cameras to take such photos).
There are six cameras aboard the probe, each of which explores a completely different aspect of the Sun. It is usually the case that the first images taken by the probe confirm that the instruments are working properly and scientists do not expect new discoveries from them. Nevertheless, Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) has sent data to Earth that indicates new features of the Sun that have never been seen before.
Bonfires on the sun
In the pictures taken in distant ultraviolet, the scientists noticed that the entire surface of the sun is dotted with so-called foci.
These foci are such smaller relatives of solar flares - at least a million, and sometimes even billions of times smaller. When we saw the new high-resolution photos taken by EUI, it turned out that they are everywhere.
For now, it is not known what these foci are and whether they have any connection with the brightening of the surface of the Sun observed by other probes. It is quite possible that these are mini-explosions, so-called nano-flares that could at least theoretically heat the outer atmosphere of the Sun, the so-called crown, up to 300 times the surface of the Sun. However, to determine how it really is needed, additional information will now be collected by the SPICE instrument installed on the probe.
The first photos of the Sun so close. Solar Orbiter sends fascinating information
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