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Solar Flare: Solar Orbiter provides full disk imagery of the Sun

2022-02-22T15:35:10.321Z


Such an image is unique to date: the ESA Solar Orbiter probe has captured matter that was thrown into space millions of kilometers from the sun. Earth was in no danger, at least this time.


Enlarge image

The solar flare reaches far into the upper left corner of the image (for comparison: the sun has a diameter of almost 1.4 million kilometers)

Photo: Solar Orbiter/EUI Team/ESA/NASA

The glowing vortices reach several million kilometers into space.

An image released by the European Space Agency Esa shows a massive mass ejection from the sun.

According to Esa, this is the largest such eruption that has ever been photographed - at least in an image that also shows the entire solar disk at the same time.

It comes from the Solar Orbiter spacecraft and was imaged on February 15 with a high-resolution ultra-shortwave UV reflecting telescope system.

According to Esa, the eruption came from the far side of the sun, which can be seen from the fact that no traces of the eruption are visible on the sun disk from the direction of view of the probe.

Nor was it aimed at the earth.

Rather, the arc of solar plasma, also known as the prominence, is moving away from Earth.

Such eruptions are generated by strong magnetic fields and are common, but usually only erupt a few hundred thousand kilometers from the sun's surface.

In early February, a weaker solar storm aimed at Earth knocked several newly launched SpaceX satellites out of orbit.

"Vigil" warning system planned

The prominence observed by Solar Orbiter has also been detected by other space missions, including some not focused on observing the Sun.

The European-Japanese Mercury probe Bepicolombo reported a massive increase in particles via its radiation monitor.

The NASA probe Parker, which is to be coordinated with the Solar Orbiter this week, also observed the event.

Although no potentially deadly particles were sent toward Earth this time, ESA sees in its spectacular photo "an important reminder of the unpredictable nature of the sun."

In order to be able to observe the space weather shaped by the sun and to be able to warn of solar flares, the agency is planning a new mission, which was named "Vigil" in mid-February and is scheduled to start between 2024 and 2026.

Since 2020, the Solar Orbiter has been circling the sun ever tighter.

The field of view of the high-resolution telescope depends on the current position.

The point closest to the sun to date is to be reached on March 26th.

Currently, the distance was still large enough to capture the entire eruption.

The current angle of view covers up to 3.5 million kilometers or five times the radius of the sun.

a.k

Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2022-02-22

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