Spacecraft films unprecedented view of sun shooting particles into space

Scientists are still unraveling the mysteries behind our torrid star.

The European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter — which makes a relatively close approach to the sun every six months — has captured an unparalleled view of the solar wind, a stream of charged particles the sun constantly streams into space. The solar wind has great implications for how solar storms impact Earth and our technologies, so researchers seek to understand how it forms and accelerates to speeds exceeding 1 million miles per hour.

"Watch particles whirl out from the Sun in giant, million-km twisters," ESA posted online.

The clip below, which zooms in on this stream of particles from an event in October 2022, was made possible by the spacecraft's coronagraph, called Metis. As you can see, a chronograph blocks the overpowering, luminous sun, allowing the Solar Orbiter to capture the whirling solar wind.

"Metis is currently the only instrument able to see the solar wind's twisting dance," the space agency explained. "No other imaging instrument can see — with a high-enough resolution in both space and time — the sun's inner corona where this dance takes place." The research has been published online in The Astrophysical Journal.

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The Solar Orbiter's close observations of the sun also seek to reveal what drives its 11-year-cycle of activity, and why its outer atmosphere, or corona, heats up to some 2 million degrees Fahrenheit, while its surface is dramatically "cooler" at 10,000 F.

Improving our understanding of the solar wind will help scientists better forecast when and where a potent coronal mass ejection (an eruption of a mass of super hot gas) or solar flare may hit Earth and threaten our power grids, satellites, and communications infrastructure. For example, when a CME erupts from the sun's surface, it must travel over 92 million miles to reach Earth. Along the way, this hot gas will "pile up" the solar wind ahead of it, impacting its arrival time at Earth.

Knowledge about these space dynamics is critical: A good space weather forecast would allow power utilities to temporarily shut off power to avoid conducting a power surge from a CME, and potentially blowing out power to millions.

Thankfully, when these events do inevitably impact Earth, our planet's atmosphere and magnetic field protect our bodies from such dangerous radiation.