![]() ![]() This was obtained on 21 June 2020, shortly after the spacecrafts. Solar Orbiter is a space mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA. An image of the Suns corona obtained with the Metis instrument on ESAs Solar Orbiter. During its nominal mission, Solar Orbiter will venture much closer to the Sun (up to 0.28 AU), providing even more detailed images. Better resolution in visible light can only be achieved during the few minutes of the natural total eclipse of the Sun, while the UV images have no match. Already at this distance, the spatial resolution of these images is comparable or better than any coronagraph on ground or in space. because its light is overwhelmed by the brilliance of the solar surface. The instrument field-of-view covers heights from 3.2 to 5.8 times the solar radius from the Sun’s centre. corona, outermost region of the Suns atmosphere, consisting of plasma (hot. ![]() Images of the Sun show that the loops are still thin and bright. ![]() It’s made of plasma, which contains lots of charged particles. These are shown in the right-hand column. The Sun’s corona is the outermost layer of its atmosphere. Metis also captured simultaneously visible and UV images on 21 June 2020, soon after Solar Orbiter’s first perihelion (approaching the Sun from 0.52 AU on 15 June). When Metis took these images, Solar Orbiter was at a distance of 0.6 astronomical units (AU one AU is equivalent to the average distance from Earth to the Sun, about 150 million kilometres) from the Sun and the instrument field-of-view covered heights from 3.8 to 7.0 times the solar radius from the Sun’s centre. This is the first UV image of the extended solar corona ever obtained. The ultraviolet image (shown in red) records emission from neutral hydrogen atoms in the corona. The visible light image (shown in green) clearly shows the two bright equatorial streamers and fainter polar regions, which are characteristic of the solar corona during times of minimal magnetic activity. Its first light images, taken on, and displayed here in the left hand column, are the first simultaneous images of the corona taken in both visible light (580-640 nm) and ultraviolet light (UV, 121.6 nm). NASA Spacecraft First to Enter Sun’s Corona, Shoot Photos Up Close Jaron Schneider For the first time ever, a spacecraft has touched the sun. Metis is a coronagraph, which blocks out the dazzling light from the solar surface, allowing the fainter outer atmosphere of the Sun, the corona, to be seen. The Metis coronagraph on ESA’s Solar Orbiter scored a couple of ‘world firsts’ with its first light image. ![]()
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