A mosaic image of the Sun is giving an unprecedented view of the Sun and its tumultuous outer atmosphere. It took Solar Orbiter four hours to capture all the images that make up the mosaic. The probe was approximately halfway between Earth and the star at the time. As it gets closer to our host star, Solar Orbiter is performing a series of eccentric solar orbits. The 25 frames captured by the EUI offer an unprecedented view of the Sun. EUI captured the image at a wavelength of 17 nanometers. It is the highest resolution image ever taken of the Sun's full disc and corona. It is high resolution. The mosaic image is 10 times better than a 4K television, according to the European Space Agency. That's 83 million images. You can zoom in and out of the graphic to see more of the scene, and it's interactive by the way. A high-res image, which I'm already using as my desktop wallpaper, can be found here.
There are eerie dark filaments at the top right and bottom left. Massive amounts of coronal gas can be thrown into space. These blasts can cause solar storms in the vicinity of our atmosphere.
The Solar Orbiter instrument is providing meaningful data. The Sun is peered into by ICE at a lower layer known as the chromoosphere, which it does by scanning different wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light produced by different atoms.
The purple regions correspond to hydrogen gas, green to oxygen, and yellow to neon at different temperatures.
The benefit ofSPICE is that it allows scientists to connect explosions on the surface to these deeper layers and to investigate an odd observation in which the Sun's surface is actually cooler than the surrounding area.
The first close pass of the Sun by the Solar Orbiter will take place on March 26, 2022. The instruments on the probe will be active at the time as the scientists try to get as much data as possible. The sun is in an elliptical position that takes it closer to the sun than Mercury. The probe will get closer and closer over the next several years, which will allow us to see the Sun's polar regions.
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