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What it is : The sunshine ’s taboo atmosphere , as captured by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager ( EUI ) on Solar Orbiter , aEuropean Space Agency(ESA ) space vehicle developed in quislingism withNASA .
Where it was take aim : midway to the Dominicus
Why it ’s so particular : Asthis videoshows , Solar Orbiter captured part of the Lord’s Day ’s raging forbidden atmosphere , its corona , that had been inconceivable for it to image until now .
The Saint Ulmo’s light is a million time fainter than the glare from the sun ’s bright control surface ( the photosphere ) , which typically keeps it hidden . However , the corona ’s temperature is around 1.8 million degree Fahrenheit ( 1 million degrees Celsius ) , 150 times hotter than the photosphere — a enigma thathas long baffled scientist . Because the corona produces the solar wind — charge particles that flood thesolar systemand can damage satellites and office grids — it ’s vital for scientist to sympathize this part of the Dominicus .
The video is actually a composite of information from two spacecraft . The image of the sun ’s disk comes from NASA ’s STEREO ballistic capsule , which just happened to be face at the sun from almost the same management as Solar Orbiter at the same time . It ’s superimpose over a widerultravioletimage of our star ’s corona taken using Solar Orbiter ’s EUI .
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However , the EUI was able to image the electric glow only because , just before launch , an locomotive engineer decided to sum up a minor " ovolo " to the camera ’s shutter . When the shutter is half - open , the ovolo just covers the sun ’s disk , leaving only the St. Elmo’s fire in aspect .
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" It was really a hack,“Frédéric Auchère , an astronomer at the Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale in France and a member of the EUI team , said in astatement . " I had the theme to just do it and see if it would work . It is actually a very simple modification to the instrument . "
Simple , but brilliant . Solar Orbiter already has a coronagraph — an instrument that obstruct the sun ’s aerofoil to reveal the corona discharge — call Metis . But the last - minute " hack " let the Saint Ulmo’s fire to be project much deeper into a region of the Sunday ’s atmosphere that ’s rarely been search .
" Physics is changing there , themagnetic structuresare changing there , and we never really had a good facial expression at it before , " EUI star investigatorDavid Berghmans , of the Royal Observatory of Belgium , said in the argument . " There must be some mystery in there that we can now find oneself . "
Solar Orbiter , which launched in February 2020 , has six ultraviolet telescopes that are now taking the first observations from close to the sun .
