Campfires Discovered On the Sun’s Surface

The galactic energy provider As you can easily see, the sun appears as a round disk in the sky under cloudless conditions. However, these impressions are nothing compared to the high-resolution images of the solar surface taken with the help of telescopes and modern space probes.

The most breathtaking images of the sun and getting to know the fixed star in our planetary system from a whole new perspective.

The Sun

The engine of our planetary system Although the sun, with a diameter of about 870 thousand miles, easily outshines all other celestial bodies in our planetary system, it is still only average in size among the stars.

Specifically, the central fixed star of our superordinate planetary system is a dwarf star, and with that, the sun is in the best of company. Most stars in our universe are dwarf stars. From our earthly point of view, the sun appears like a brightly shining round body in the sky.

Credit to Solar Orbiter/EUI Team/ESA & NASA

The fact that the dwarf star, which is located at an average distance of 93 million miles from the earth, presents us with a yellowish hue is incidentally due to the influence of the earth's atmosphere. If you look at the sun from space, however, it appears in a brilliant white.

As mentioned at the beginning, it's because of our favorable spatial constellation to the sun that we have suitable climatic conditions for the development of life at all.

Our Fixed Star's Past and Future

Because of its mystical appearance in the firmament and its powerful property to divide our earthly life into years, days, and nights, the sun was already revered as a supernatural being by various advanced civilizations countless centuries ago.

The ancient Egyptians, for example, believed that the warming disk in the cloud realm was the powerful sun god, Rey. Although the earth and the sun are separated by an immense distance, the dwarf star nevertheless possesses enough power to supply our earthly home with sufficient energy.

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The sun is not only 110 times larger than the Earth, but it is also 330 000 times heavier's estimated that the sun, just like the other members of our planetary system, was formed about 4.7 billion years ago, despite all its size and power.

However, even the sparkling, bright engine of our planetary system is ultimately a finite entity. Most experts assume that our sun will enter the last chapter of its galactic existence in about five to seven billion years.

In contrast to larger stars, however, the sun will not go into a breathtaking supernova. It simply has too little mass for that. If in many millions of years the sun's hydrogen supply is exhausted, the dwarf star will continue to inflate and eventually become a red giant star.

Since the sun will absorb all celestial bodies in its vicinity, this process will also mean the end of our blue home planet. However, experts consider it unlikely that life will still exist on earth by that time.

As a result of various processes, the sun's radiant power will continue to decrease over the coming millions of years, probably in 500 million years.

The solar radiation will be so small that no more lives will be so What will then remain will be a small, shrunken white dwarf star and planetary nebula.

Solar Corona and Chemical Composition

In terms of its chemical composition, the sun is three-quarters hydrogen. This is followed by helium, carbon, and a vanishingly small array of 63 other chemical elements. Most of the sun's rays are emitted in the so-called photosphere.

Temperatures of over 9900 degrees Fahrenheit prevail within this atmospheric layer of the fixed star. It gets even hotter when we approach the sun's core. Here the thermometer climbs to an incredible 59 million degrees Fahrenheit.

Solar Corona and Chemical CompositionCredit to Thomson scattering & https://www.allthesky.com/

If you look at the surface of the sun from a shorter distance, you will quickly notice many small dark formations decorating the outside of the celestial body. These objects are called sunspots in the core. These are regions that are somewhat cooler than their surroundings, which is why they radiate less light than the other solar areas.

The outermost atmosphere of the sun is called the corona. While we can see the complex nature of the corona in detail in these photos, we can only perceive this fascinating atmospheric layer of the dwarf star during a total solar eclipse. Then the corona appears to us like a bright, irregular veil of light that stands out clearly from the darkened silhouette of the sun.

If we look at the composition of the corona, it becomes even clearer what galactic spectacles are taking place here. The fiery envelope is formed by the influence of different scattering processes Images of this kind show us the incomparable beauty of our universe.

Just take a look at the granulation, the characteristic grainy surface structure of the sun. The image taken by a solar telescope in Hawaii gives us an authentic impression of the complex structural nature of our galactic fixed point.

Winds from the Sun

Another fascinating galactic process in the solar corona is the formation of solar winds. This is a gigantic accumulation of charged particles that are permanently ejected from the solar corona into the infinite expanse of space.

The resulting stream of electrons and protons then sweeps through the universe at supersonic speed. Solar winds reach speeds of between about 200 and 500 miles per hour.

Incomparable Images of The Solar Orbiter

It will take a closer look at the solar winds that have just been described. The puzzles surrounding the sun's poles, the origins of the sun's magnetic fields, and the influence of solar flares on space weather are also among the important questions waiting to be answered by the space project.

Credit to Solar Orbiter/EUI Team (ESA & NASA); CSL, IAS, MPS, PMOD/WRC, ROB, UCL/MSSL

After the successful launch, the spacecraft was able to approach the sun at a distance of about 48 million miles in June 2020. This is roughly half the distance that naturally lies between our blue home planet and the dwarf star.

During this time, the probe also produced the first detailed images of the sun, which in turn were made available to the public a few weeks ago. Among them are some high-resolution images of the sun's surface, including some spectacular pictures of sunspots.

"Campfire" on the Sun

The resulting images represent a real milestone in the field of space research. Never before had mankind succeeded in flying so close to the sun. Leading experts have high hopes that the amazing images taken by the solar orbiter will help us to better understand the nature and processes of the sun in the future, equipped with six imaging instruments.

Credit to https://www.esa.int/

The probe sent several images toward Earth last year, and scientists couldn't believe their eyes when they saw them. The first photos showed completely new, previously unknown structures on the surface of the sun. These are a collection of small, brightly shining areas on the sun.

The researchers suspect that these are relatively tiny solar flares, millions of times smaller than their larger counterparts. For example, scientists want to take a closer look at the temperatures of the objects and derive further conclusions from the data obtained.