News: European Space Agency has released the closest pictures ever taken of the Sun captured by the Solar Orbiter Mission.
Facts:
Key Takeaways:
- Camp Fires: There are mini-flares on the sun that are millionths of the size of the Sun’s massive flares that are routinely observed by Earth telescopes.
- Significance: These camp fires could have something to do with the heating process that makes the corona, the Sun’s outer atmosphere far hotter than its surface.
Additional Facts:
- Solar Orbiter Mission: It is a space mission between ESA (European Space Agency) and NASA launched in February 2020.
- Aim: To perform close-up, high-resolution studies of the Sun and inner heliosphere.
- Objectives:
- Study solar wind and where does the coronal magnetic field originate from
- Study how solar transients drive heliospheric variability
- Study how solar eruptions produce energetic particle radiation that fills the heliosphere
- Understand how the solar dynamo works and drive connections between the Sun and the heliosphere.
- Solar Flares: It is an intense burst of radiation coming from the release of magnetic energy associated with sunspot.
