ESA Solar Orbiter Captures Stunning Full Sun Views with Sunspots and Magnetic Fields

ESA Solar Orbiter Reveals Stunning High-Resolution Sun Images

The European Space Agency's (ESA) Solar Orbiter has released four incredible, high-resolution images of the Sun, captured on March 22, 2023. These images, thanks to the spacecraft's Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI) and Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI), reveal the Sun in unprecedented detail, informing us about both its surface and outer atmosphere.

Unveiling the Sun's Magnetic Complexity

With the clearest full views yet of the Sun's photosphere, or visible surface, the instrument offers, the PHI instrument provides glimpses into intricate details of the magnetic field and surface motion of the Sun, describing its dynamic and turbulent nature. Simultaneously, EUI captures ultraviolet images of the corona-the glowing outer atmosphere consisting of hot plasma around the Sun. All of these instruments offer a stratified view of the Sun's activity-the interconnectedness of surface dynamics with atmospheric phenomena.

According to Daniel Müller, Solar Orbiter's Project Scientist, these observations are critical: The sun's magnetic field is the key to understanding its dynamic nature. The maps of PHI reveal the beauty of the magnetic field and flows, while the EUI catches the hot plasma activity in the corona.

A Turbulent Plasma Sea

As shown here in the visible-light images, the Sun's surface is a churning sea of plasma with temperatures of 4500–6000°C. Below this shell, the convection zone of the Sun is located, where the plasma motion gives rise to the grainy texture observed in these images.

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Sunspots and Magnetic Activity

Sunspots, visible as dark regions, represent areas of intense magnetic activity. PHI’s magnetic map identifies these spots as regions with strong magnetic fields, where the field lines point outward (red) or inward (blue). These magnetic disturbances inhibit heat transfer, causing the cooler, darker appearance of sunspots.

Revolutionizing Solar Observations

Such imagery from the Solar Orbiter opens a new era in the study of solar magnetic fields and plasma flows, opening new vistas toward deeper knowledge of the Sun's dynamics and space weather.