Unprecedented picture of the sun just captured by stellar spacecraft

The most detailed picture of the sun and its outer atmosphere has been released by space scientists.

You have heard it since you were a kid: Don't look at the sun if you want to be blind. The exposed tissue of the eye can be burned by the sun's rays. There are telescopes that can look directly into the sky.

The new picture was taken on March 7 by the Solar Orbiter, a collaborative mission of the European Space Agency and NASA. It was shot from Mercury, about 47 million miles from the sun.

The photo is a mosaic of 25 individual images and it shows the furious stewing of the solar system. The sun's corona is nearly 2 million degrees.

Tweet may have been deleted

The corona is usually hidden by the bright light of the sun's surface, making it difficult to see without special instruments. The new photo is so exceptional because of that.

Space weather can disrupt power grids, telecommunications, and other things, and scientists have a limited ability to forecast it.

The corona's extreme heat is one of the reasons why the orbiter is trying to get to the bottom of it. The outer atmosphere of the sun is hundreds of times hotter than the corona. Most physics says temperature drops as you move farther from a heat source.

NASA is conducting research on the sun with a solar probe. The probe traveled closer to the orb than any other craft before, dipping into the corona just 6.5 million miles from the sun's surface. It is expected to get a lot closer to the star after the April 2021 flyby.