#solar orbiter
Real space mission
European Space Agency launched Solar orbiter in February 2020, starting its primary mission in November 2021, will provide the closest ever images of the Sun, the first ever close-up images of the Sun’s polar regions, and measure the composition of the solar wind and linking it to its area of origin on the Sun’s surface.
You can learn more about this mission here: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter
Solar Orbiter lifts off on a ULA Atlas V rocket.
On its way to unlock the secrets of our Sun. ☀️
The Solar Orbiter is the most complex scientific laboratory to ever be sent to the Sun. The spacecraft has captured this incredible image of the largest ever prominence erupting from the surface of the Sun together with the complete solar disk. Solar prominences are clouds of hot gas and plasma held in place by the Sun’s magnetic field. Not much is known about how and why prominences happen but with the Solar Orbiter we may be able to learn more about this magnetic mystery.
Image Credit: Solar Orbiter, EUI Team, ESA & NAS
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The Sun as seen by Solar Orbiter in extreme ultraviolet light from a distance of roughly 75 million kilometres. The image is a mosaic of 25 individual images taken on 7 March by the high resolution telescope of the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument. Taken at a wavelength of 17 nanometers, in the extreme ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum, this image reveals the Sun’s upper atmosphere, the corona, which has a temperature of around a million degrees Celsius. In total, the final image contains more than 83 million pixels in a 9148 x 9112 pixel grid, making it the highest resolution image of the Sun’s full disc and outer atmosphere, the corona, ever taken.
An image of Earth is also included for scale, at the 2 o’clock position.
