Solar Orbiter and Soho’s view of the giant eruption-close-up. Credits: Solar Orbiter Team / EUI, SOHO / LASCO, ESA and NASA
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European Space Agency /[{” attribute=””>NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft has captured the largest solar prominence eruption ever observed in a single image together with the full solar disc.
Solar prominences are large structures of tangled magnetic field lines that keep dense concentrations of solar technology and everyday lives.
This last event occurred on February 15, 2022, and stretched millions of kilometers into space. The coronal mass spike is not directed towards Earth. In fact, it’s moving away from us. There is no trace of the eruption on the solar disk facing the spacecraft – which is currently approaching the Earth and Sun line – meaning it must have come from the side of the Sun away from us.
Extreme Ultraviolet Imager from Full Sun Imager on board the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft captured the giant solar explosion on February 15, 2022. The solar bulge is a large structure made of interlocking magnetic field lines that maintain a dense concentration of suspended solar plasma above the surface. . The Sun’s surface is often a curved ring. This is the largest solar eruption ever observed in a single image with a full solar disk. Credits: Solar Orbiter / Team EUI / ESA and NASA
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Photo taken by “Full Sun Imager” (FSI) courtesy of . Extreme UV Imaging (EUI) in the Solar Orbiter. FSI is designed to view the full solar disk even during near-solar trajectories, such as during the impending perihelion corridor next month. At its closest approach on March 26, which will see the spacecraft pass within 0.3 times the distance between the Sun and Earth, the Sun will fill a much larger part of the telescope’s field of view. Today, there are still many “wide margins” around the disk, which allows FSI to capture incredible detail about 3.5 million km away, which is five times the radius of the Sun.
Other space telescopes such as ESA/NASA SOHO .satelit You often see solar activity like this, but closer to the sun, or further away by a membrane, which blocks the glare of the solar disk to allow detailed images of the corona itself. Thus, the bulge observed by the Solar Orbiter is the largest event of its kind captured in a shared field of view with the solar disc, opening up new possibilities for studying how an event like this relates to the solar disc for the first time. At the same time,
There are also other space missions observing the event, including NASA’s Parker Solar Probe. Next week, the Solar Orbiter and Parker Solar Probe will conduct joint observations during Parker’s perihelion journey.
Even spacecraft not dedicated to solar science felt the explosion – the European Space Agency /[{”attribute=””>JAXABepiColombomissioncurrentlyinthevicinityofMercury’sorbit–detectedamassiveincreaseinthereadingsforelectronsprotonsandheavyionswithitsradiationmonitor[{”attribute=””>JAXABepiColombomissioncurrentlyinthevicinityofMercury’sorbit–detectedamassiveincreaseinthereadingsforelectronsprotonsandheavyionswithitsradiationmonitor
And while this event did not send a blast of deadly particles towards Earth, it is an important reminder of the unpredictable nature of the Sun and the importance of understanding and monitoring its behavior. Together with ESA’s future dedicated space weather mission Vigilwhich will provide unique views of events like these, we can better protect our home planet from the Sun’s violent outbursts.
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