Sun's Closest Ever Pics Released By NASA Show 'Campfires' On Sun's Surface
NASA says that it is not yet clear what these sun campfires are and their significance
US space agency NASA has released the first images from Solar Orbiter, a mission to the Sun by the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA.
The release contains never-seen-before images of the Sun¡¯s surface, including the closest snap of the star ever clicked by any spacecraft.
NASA
Having taken off from Earth in February 2020 this year, the Solar Orbiter completed its first close pass of the Sun in mid-June. The Solar Orbiter spacecraft flew within 48 million miles of the Sun and though other spacecrafts have been closer, none have carried Sun-facing imagers to click a snap.
According to NASA, the Solar Orbiter is equipped with six imaging instruments, each of which studies a different aspect of the Sun.
Among these sun-sensitive instruments, Extreme Ultraviolet Imager, or EUI has been able to return data hinting at solar features never observed in such detail.
New discovery on Sun
A view of the Sun captured with the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) on ESA/NASA's Solar Orbiter (Image: NASA)
In the images returned by the EUI on the Solar Orbiter, scientists have spotted tiny solar flares which are now being called ¡°campfires.¡± The discovery was made by principal investigator David Berghmans, an astrophysicist at the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Brussels.
¡°The campfires we are talking about here are the little nephews of solar flares, at least a million, perhaps a billion times smaller,¡± Berghmans said. ¡°When looking at the new high resolution EUI images, they are literally everywhere we look.¡±
Sun campfires discovered
"Campfires" expected to be nano flares on the sun's outer atmosphere (Image: NASA)
NASA says that it is not yet clear what these campfires are ¡°or how they correspond to solar brightenings observed by other spacecraft.¡± A possible explanation is that they are mini-explosions known as nanoflares.
Scientists predict that these nanoflares help heat the Sun's outer atmosphere, or corona. The Sun can have temperatures up to 300 times that on the solar surface. A more precise measurement of the campfires' temperature is required however to know for sure.
The Spectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment, or SPICE instrument, also on the Solar Orbiter, is able to do that. The next data set from SPICE is thus awaited.
Till then, we can enjoy our closest view of the Earth¡¯s nearest star, thanks to the Solar Orbiter.
