The ESA sonds Solar Orbiter delivered the first pictures of its blessing of the sun at the end of March. The pictures show the hot atmosphere of the star, the sun corona, in particular detailed sharpness, report the European space organization and the Max Planck Institute for Sonnen Research (MPS) in Göttingen.
The researchers evaluated the data from three measuring instruments, the METIS Coronographer, the Spectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment (Spice) and the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (Eui). The devices each record a specific area of the sun: the coronographer makes the outer layer of the corona visible by covering the sun disk. The SPICE instrument analyzes the occurrence of particles in the Korona based on the light from it. The Eui films the sun in the extremely short -wave ultraviolet light. Among other things, the recordings show a mysterious structure of 25,000 kilometers in diameter, from which plasma flows run out bars in all directions. Therefore, she was baptized "The Hedgehog", in German "the hedgehog". How the Sonnenigel was created and what is going on in it should be examined next. So far, only a part of the data recorded in March has reached the earth, because the probe is currently distance.
The solar probe had taken the images on March 26, when it had come particularly close to the Sun – there were 48 million kilometers between them. The distance between the Earth and the Sun is more than three times as long. In October 2022, the Solar Orbiter is expected to approach the Sun at up to 42 million kilometers. Ideally, he should explore the star until 2030.
