This image, provided by the European Space Agency (ESA) on Thursday, July 16, 2020, shows the Sun. The Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) on ESA's Solar Orbiter spacecraft took this image on 30 May 2020. It shows the Sun's appearance at a wavelength of 17 nanometers, which is in the extreme ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum. During an online press briefing with Solar Orbiter mission experts, the first images from ESA's new Sun-observing spacecraft were released on Thursday. (Solar Orbiter/EUI Team (ESA & NASA); CSL, IAS, MPS, PMOD/WRC, ROB, UCL/MSSL/ via AP)
By Marcia Dunn
A European and NASA spacecraft has snapped the closest pictures ever taken of the sun, revealing countless little "campfires" flaring everywhere.
Scientists on Thursday released the first images taken by Solar Orbiter, launched from Cape Canaveral in February.
The orbiter was about 48 million miles (77 million kilometers) from the sun — about halfway between Earth and the sun — when it took the stunning high-resolution pictures last month.
NASA's Parker Solar Probe is flying much closer to the sun than Solar Orbiter — too close for cameras to safely photograph the sun. Its lone camera faces away from the sun to observe the solar wind.
That's why Solar Orbiter's new pictures showing vibrant swirls of yellow and dark smoky gray — the first images from so close and at such small scale — are so precious. The team had to create a new vocabulary to name these tiny flare-ups, said European Space Agency project scientist Daniel Muller.
Muller described the observed multitude of "campfires" shooting into the corona, or sun's crown-like outer atmosphere, as quite possibly "the tiny cousins of the solar flares that we already know." Millions if not billions of times smaller, these tiny flares may be heating the corona, he said, long known to be hundreds of times hotter than the actual solar surface for unknown reasons.
The Royal Observatory of Belgium's David Berghmans, principal scientist of the instrument that captured the images, said he was blown away. He said his first response was: "This is not possible. It cannot be that good."
"It was really much better than we expected, but what we dared to hope for," Berghmans said.
These so-called campfires, Berghmans noted, are "literally everywhere we look." Not yet well understood, they could be mini explosions, or nanoflares. More measurements are planned.
The $1.5 billion spacecraft will tilt its orbit as the mission goes on, providing unprecedented views of the sun's poles. This vantage point will allow it to capture the first pictures of the solar poles.
Solar Orbiter will get even closer to the sun in two years.
"This is just the beginning of the long epic journey of Solar Orbiter," Muller said.
The pandemic has forced Solar Orbiter's scientists to work from home for months. Only a few engineers are allowed at any one time inside the control center in Darmstadt, Germany.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
On this episode of Cheddar Innovates: President of The Pillow Bar breaks down how everyone can benefit from a pillow customized to their unique way of sleeping; CEO of H2Pro explains how to bring environmentally friendly hydrogen to scale; Cheddar gets a look at Curiosity Stream's 'Suppressed Science.'
On this episode of Cheddar Innovates: Gardenuity CEO breaks down how gardening can improve your wellbeing; Augmedix CEO discusses how this technology is helping doctors fight burnout; Cheddar gets a look at Curiosity Stream's 'Suppressed Science.'
On this episode of Cheddar Innovates: Atom Limbs CEO breaks down how the Atom Touch prosthetic is different from other prosthetics on the market; CEO & Chief Scientific Officer of MyMD explains how the MYMD-1 is on track to be the first FDA-approved drug to treat aging and age-related diseases; A look at Curiosity Stream's 'The Future of Warfare.'
On this episode of Cheddar Innovates: SkilsVR CEO explains how virtual reality is being used to train frontline workers to handle difficult customers; Rubicon CEO breaks down how technology and sustainability will go hand in hand in the future; Cheddar gets a look at 'Our Infinite Universe.'
A UN report is warning that relying on seawalls and other engineering fixes will not be enough to keep communities safe from rising sea levels and climate change consequences. Dr. Steve Rose, a senior research economist at the Electric Power Research Institute, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
As gas prices surge amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, other nations could potentially transition faster to using clean energy than previously expected. Philip K. Verleger, a senior fellow at the Niskanen Center, joined Cheddar News to explain how this could be a possibility in the near future. "Part of the reason I think we have this invasion and the tantrum that's being thrown by Russia, terrible tantrum, is because the Russians were trying to slow down the transition," he said. "Ironically they speeded it up."
As Russia intensifies its war on Ukraine, President Biden announced a ban on oil imported from the aggressor nation. Critics of Russia have said this would be the best way to force Putin to pull back, but curbs on Russian oil exports are expected to send already skyrocketing oil and gas prices even higher, further impacting consumers, businesses, financial markets, and the global economy. Leslie Beyer, CEO of the Energy Workforce and Technology Council, joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss. "It's certainly going to increase pricing, but it is the right thing to do," she said. "The industry itself has already pulled out of the significant portion of its operations in Russia."
On this episode of Cheddar Innovates: Vision Marine Technologies CEO discusses how e-boats will play a role in the fight against the climate crisis; Lasso CEO breaks down how the design behind these compression socks can prevent injuries and improve performance; Cheddar gets a look at Curiosity Stream's 'The Tombs Of Egypt.'
Vaccine maker Pfizer delayed its COVID shot for kids allegedly due to a lack of data on how it would perform against the omnicron variant, according to the Wall Street Journa. Peter Pitts, professor and founder of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest and a former FDA associate commissioner, joined Cheddar News Wrap to break down why the authorization can't be rushed. "Going forward, the FDA wants to look at data specifically against omicron, and it looks like that's going to be a three-shot regimen versus two, which was efficient against delta but not omicron because obviously omicron is more infectious," said Pitts.
Walker Ross, Assistant Professor of Sports Business Management at Florida Southern College, joins Business of Sports: The Beijing Winter Olympics 2022, where he says that actions Beijing and other Olympic host sites have been implementing to combat climate change has simply not been enough to offset their carbon footprint.
