These are some of the first images from ESA’s
Solar Orbiter.
They were captured by the Extreme Ultraviolet
Imager in June
as the spacecraft made its first approach.
Solar Orbiter came within 77 million kilometres
never before has a camera been this close to the Sun.
Solar Orbiter’s first close approach to the Sun,
has enabled us to
for the first time
operate all ten instruments onboard together.
Initially they had been checked out one by one,
like tuning individual musical instruments
and now it was time for them to perform together
for the first time.
Solar Orbiter was launched on the 10th of
February this year.
But the process of checking out the 10 instruments,
and a total of 27 telescopes and sensors on board
has been hampered by the Covid-19 pandemic.
For the first time,
spacecraft commissioning was carried out from
people’s homes
an effort that’s paid off.
Receiving this first science data was really exciting
we already see little features
we haven’t seen before,
like little flashes of light that look a bit
like solar flares
but are much, much smaller than the solar
flares we used to know.
The scientists refer to these flashes as campfires.
They could be part of the process that heats
the outer layer of the Sun’s atmosphere,
the corona.
and although the mission is at an early stage,
and the instruments aren’t fully calibrated,
these results provide a tantalising glimpse
of the discoveries to come.
This first data allows us to tune the software on board,
to calibrate the images even better
so that we can get ready for the real science phase
and for even closer approaches to the Sun.
Solar Orbiter has a long journey ahead of it.
During this cruise phase of the mission
the spacecraft will study the solar wind
the stream of charged particles the Sun emits
producing more useful science.
Having been involved in Solar Orbiter for
over 13 years,
it’s been an amazing moment to see the first
data and images.
Because this is something that I’d been
waiting for as a scientist for many years,
and following this entire process from conceiving
the spacecraft,
building it,
launching it
and then see it actually work in orbit is fantastic.
And this is only the beginning
just a few months after launch,
Solar Orbiter is already giving us a new understanding
of our neighbourhood star
and its influence on the Earth.
