Science is Fun Fridays!

You may recall back in January, we looked at some amazing images of our Sun.

Now we have the first images from Solar Orbiter.


The closest image taken of the sun so far shows tiny flares, dubbed "campfires."


Solar Orbiter captured these images in extreme ultraviolet wavelengths of light.

It is believed that these "campfires" help explain why the corona, the sun's outer atmosphere, is millions of degrees hotter than the solar surface.  They are thought to be smaller versions of solar flares, powerful magnetic outbursts that shoot radiation into space.


Solar Orbiter launched February 9.  The images were taken May 30 from a position 77 million kilometers from the sun, about half the distance from Earth.

Ultimately it will approach 42 million kilometers away, and will be the first spacecraft to fly over the solar poles.


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