This is the clearest and closest picture of the Sun ever taken

Posted on:
Key Points

The European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter mission has captured the highest-resolution full views of the Sun's visible surface to date, offering scientists an unprecedented look at our star's complex and dynamic nature...

The images, taken on March 22, 2023, were assembled from high-resolution observations made by the spacecraft's Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI) and Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instruments...

These detailed views show the Sun's surface as a sea of glowing, hot plasma constantly in motion, with temperatures ranging from 4500 to 6000C...

Daniel Muller, Solar Orbiter's Project Scientist, emphasised the importance of these observations, stating, "The Sun's magnetic field is key to understanding the dynamic nature of our home star from the smallest to the largest scales."..

To create full-disc images, 25 individual high-resolution images were stitched together like a mosaic for both PHI and EUI, resulting in a Sun's disc with a diameter of almost 8000 pixels...

You might be interested in

NASA’s Quest to Touch the Sun

24, May, 24

The outer layers of the sun’s atmosphere are a blistering million degrees hotter than its surface. NASA sent a probe to find out why—by getting closer to the star than ever before.