Today we're zooming in on the new image of the sun, the most high-resolution image yet of our sun's full disk and atmosphere.

The image has been taken on March 7th, by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager of European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter. The solar orbiter took this image as it was at a distance of just 46.6 million miles, half the distance between Earth's average orbit and the Sun. The spacecraft took 25 different images, each with around 10-minute exposure. The images then stitched together into this fascinating 9,148 by 9,112 pixel image. The image contains 83 million pixels of solar beauty, fine details of the solar surface and corona or sun’s atmosphere, including massive plasma ejections around the edges.

Interestingly, the hotter temperatures occur farther from the sun’s surface. High resolution images like this can help scientists to understand why that is.

Solar orbiter’s next perihelion, the point in the orbit that is closest to the sun, is due to take place next year. At that point, the orbiter will get even closer to the Sun. We can’t wait to see what images the orbiter will deliver in the months and years ahead!

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Sources:
Zooming into the Sun with Solar Orbiter
https://www.esa.int/Science_Explorati...

Feast Your Eyes on 'Unprecedented' New Pics Revealed of Our Sun
https://www.sciencealert.com/spectacu...

Thumbnail Credit: ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/EUI team; Data processing: E. Kraaikamp (ROB)