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.
Plant-based meat giant Beyond Meat's reign over the fast food world continues, as McDonald's announced that it is expanding its test of Beyond's McPlant burger, to nearly 600 restaurants, an increase from the eight that it's been testing in since November. This comes less than two weeks after Beyond Fried Chicken made its nationwide debut at KFC restaurants, the first time that plant based chicken has been widely distributed in a fast food capacity. Arun Sundaram, Senior Equity Analyst at CFRA Research explains why these latest collaborations may be proof that Beyond Meat products could slowly be becoming an unlikely staple in the fast food and chain restaurant world as consumers opt for more healthy food options.
BD Veritor is a variation of the at-home COVID test that uses a smartphone to interpret the results. The test is taken via a nose swab test strip that is then scanned by your phone’s camera with the result clearly displayed as positive or negative. James Walker, vice president of integrated diagnostics USA for BD, joined Cheddar to discuss how the test hopefully takes the "guesswork out of testing." Walker also went into what BD is doing to deal with the surging demand for at-home tests amid the omicron spread. "While we don't disclose how much we produce, we have capacity to manufacture up to 12 million rapid antigen tests per month and are delivering on our commitments to distributors and retailers," he said.
On this episode of Cheddar Innovates: Sidechef CEO breaks down how it's building a platform to make recipe shopping easy; Luum CEO explains the process of having a robot put on eyelash extensions; A look at Curiosity Stream's new original series, 'Evolve.'
Moderna launched a clinical trial of a COVID-19 booster shot specifically targeting the omicron variant. The first participant has already received a dose, and Moderna expects to enroll about 600 adults total, split between two groups. In the first group, participants will have previously received two doses of the Moderna vaccine, and in the second, participants will have received its booster. Dr. Paul Burton, chief medical officer at Moderna, joined Cheddar’s Opening Bell to discuss the trial, yearly boosters, and what lies ahead for the company.
With the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics right around the corner, experts are warning that climate change is threatening not only the event but also the future of snow sports. Despite being the world's top polluter, China is hoping to use the event to demonstrate the country's commitment to fighting climate change, and pledging to host a "low carbon" games. Xubin Zeng, professor of hydrology and atmospheric sciences at the University of Arizona, joins Cheddar News.
New research is suggesting that giving extra cash to low-income mothers can actually influence the brain development of their infants. These findings provide the first rigorous evidence of how payments and monetary support can affect children in the early years of life. Authors of the study, Nathan Fox, professor in the department of human development at the University of Maryland, and Sonya Troller-Renfree, postdoctoral research associate at Teachers College at Columbia University, join Cheddar News to discuss.
Communities of color are disproportionately affected by climate change and continuously feel the impacts. Mark Magaña, founding president and CEO of Green Latinos joined All Hands to discuss.
