If Solar Orbiter were not a machine, certainly gifted but without conscience, it would no doubt have thought “We are very few things” observing February 15, as reported the European Space Agency taken over by Space.com, largest solar prominence ever captured in a single image.
Solar prominences are described by the ESA, in its press release, as “large structures of interlocking magnetic field lines that maintain a dense concentration of plasma above the sun, sometimes arching, and are often associated with coronal mass ejections”.
The one observed by Solar Orbiter was particularly colossal: captured by the “Full Sun Imager” (FSI) of the“Extreme Ultraviolet Imager” (EUI) probeit stretched over millions of kilometres.
The Full Sun Imager (part of the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager) is designed to look at the full solar disc even during close passages of the Sun. Combined with @MissionSoho we can follow the event to even larger distances! https://t.co/u00kcaj7fl pic.twitter.com/11At4aDoUF
— ESA’s Solar Orbiter (@ESASolarOrbiter) February 18, 2022
star and disaster
Above all, the ideal position of the probe in space as well as the particular capacities of its instruments made it possible to capture both the solar prominence and the corona of our star in its entirety.
This is a first, and in conjunction with observations from other satellites such as the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), it opens up new possibilities for understanding these extreme phenomena.
By luck and as the sun enters a period of intense activitythis coronal mass ejection, which spanned millions of kilometres, did not occur in the direction of Earth, in which case it could have, in ESA’s own words, “cause chaos in our technologies and our daily lives”.
“Although this event did not hurl deadly particles towards Earth, it is a strong reminder of the unpredictable nature of the sun and the importance of monitoring its behavior”concludes the ESA, which has released two videos explaining the thing, visible below.