The European Space Agency (ESA) has shared photos of the Sun taken by its Solar Orbiter. The new photos are considered to be the closest photos ever taken of the Sun.
The Solar Orbiter made use of its Extreme Ultraviolet Imager as well as Spectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment Instrument to take the photographs. It was taken from the distance of 46 million miles away from the Sun.
The orbiter is expected to come closer to the Sun in the future, reaching distances of 30 million miles away and even less.
ESA's Solar Orbiter Snaps Closest Photos of the Sun
The ESA has shared new photos of the Sun with the public and they are no ordinary images. In fact, the photos are the closest one ever taken of the Sun.
According to the statement released by the ESA, the images were taken when the Solar Orbiter was halfway between Earth and the Sun. This means that the Solar Orbiter was about 46 million miles away from the our star.
The Solar Orbiter had to take 25 different shots of the sun in order to capture the entire solar disk, per a report by Space.
"One of the images, taken by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) is the highest resolution image of the Sun's full disc and outer atmosphere, the corona, ever taken," ESA said in its statement.
Another image, on the other hand, was snapped using the Spectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment (SPICE) instrument Per the ESA statement, the photo is "the first full Sun image of its kind in 50 years, and by far the best one, taken at the Lyman-beta wavelength of ultraviolet light that is emitted by hydrogen gas."
Solar Orbiter to Go Closer to the Sun
If you think that being at the distance of 46 million miles away from the Sun is already close enough, the Solar Orbiter is actually bound to come even closer to the star.
According to the report by Space, the Solar Orbiter is scheduled to reach a distance of 30 million miles away from the Sun on March 26. Another future close pass will take the orbiter to 26 million miles away from the Sun.
Related Article : ESA's Solar Orbiter To Make Its Closest Approach to the Sun This Month
Solar Orbiter
Per a separate post on the ESA website, the Solar Orbiter is considered "the most complex scientific laboratory ever to have been sent to the Sun."
Its goal is to take images of the Sun from distances that are closer than other spacecraft have ever managed before. The Solar Orbiter is also tasked with looking into the Sun's polar regions that have yet to be surveyed.
It has a total of six remote-sensing instruments as well as four sets of in situ instruments that it can use.
