The first photos of the Sun from the Solar Orbiter mission were released to the public yesterday. The solar flares that are seen from Earth turn out to be a million times or more larger than a vast array of mini-flares, called mini-explosions or nanoflares, now made visible. “The campfires we are talking about here are the little nephews of solar flares, at least a million, perhaps a billion times smaller,” said David Berghmans, the principal investigator of the orbiter’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI). “When looking at the new high resolution EUI images, they are literally everywhere we look.” Among other things, the seeming anomaly of the vastly greater temperatures at the surface of the Sun, compared to those in the core of the Sun, might now be addressed, possibly provoking some healthy rethinking. Even more fascinating than what process is going on at the core of the Sun might be what that process catalyzes as a more world-changing process at the Sun’s boundary. The possibility of reticulating the actual dynamics of the Sun, on a level orders of magnitude better than ever known, should set off a series of mini-explosions through the scientific world.
The first pictures, designed to provide an initial, rather crude view, were much more clear than expected. More precise measurements are to come from the Solar Orbiter’s SPICE (Spectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment), which is expected to delve into these nanoflares and more. Further, the orbiter also has the ability to investigate solar wind structures (with SoloHI, the solar and heliospheric Imager) and the Sun’s magnetic field (with PHI, the Polar and Helioseismic Imager). The last has a special emphasis upon the poles of the Sun.
