"Vivid Corona Eruption"…'Direct Shot' Golden Sun Photo Released [Reading Science]

European Space Agency Releases Solar Orbiter Footage

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] A photo of the Sun taken from a point just 75 million km away vividly reveals the eruption of the corona.

On the 24th (local time), the European Space Agency (ESA) released an image of the Sun captured by the Solar Orbiter probe on the 7th. It was taken at approximately 75 million km between the Earth and the Sun, making it the closest photo of the Sun ever taken by humanity. The image is especially notable for capturing detailed views of the corona extending to the outer atmosphere of the Sun. The Solar Orbiter was launched in February 2020 and had sent solar observation photos in July of the same year, but those were taken from a slightly farther distance of 77 million km.

This image was captured using the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) installed on the Solar Orbiter. The photo is a composite of 25 segments. Each segment took about 10 minutes to capture, and including the probe's focus adjustment time, the entire shooting process took over 4 hours.

Notably, ESA plans to bring the Solar Orbiter closer to the Sun around 7:50 a.m. on the 26th (Eastern Time, USA) to take another photo from about 47.3 million km away. In the future, the probe will attempt to approach as close as 42 million km for photography. If successful, this will be the closest photo ever taken of the Sun in history. The United States also launched the Parker Solar Probe, which approached as close as 8.5 million km from the Sun at the end of last month. However, due to the extremely high surface temperature of the Sun, the Parker Solar Probe was unable to attempt photography.

The Solar Orbiter also used the Spectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment (SPICE) instrument to capture the Sun’s most mysterious phenomenon, the flame-like pillars of the corona. Usually, the temperature in the atmosphere is lower than on the surface, but the Sun’s atmospheric temperature is higher due to the corona’s eruptions. The surface of the Sun is about 5,000 degrees Celsius, but the outer atmosphere of the Sun is known to reach as high as 1 million degrees Celsius. In fact, during this shooting, the Solar Orbiter confirmed that the temperature of the Sun’s atmosphere ranges from 10,000 degrees to 630,000 degrees Celsius in layers.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.