Solar Corona in Detail

This movie of the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona, was taken with the EUI instrument onboard Solar Orbiter on February 23, 2021. Working in its high cadence mode, the instrument returned an image every two seconds. The resulting movie is among the highest cadence observations of the solar corona ever recorded in the extreme ultraviolet. It shows a dynamic class of miniature solar flares dubbed ‘campfires’ that shoot out jets of electrified gas, called plasma, at speeds of a hundred kilometers per second. They are difficult to spot, however, as the jets can be seen only for 10-20 seconds. They could play a key role in explaining how the corona is heated to a million degrees. Explaining this extreme temperature has been a focus for solar scientists for many decades.

Credit: Solar Orbiter/EUI Team/ESA & NASA