‘Stellar Ejections’ Spotted in Solar Corona

The sun’s corona, the mysteriously hotter outer atmosphere, revealed never-before-seen meteor-like fireballs in images captured by the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft. These high-resolution images were taken when the spacecraft was a third of the way to the sun from Earth in spring 2022.

The solar corona, which will be visible during the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, in North America, is composed of million-degree gas and remains hotter than the sun’s surface. This temperature difference continues to puzzle solar physicists.

The research, published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, focuses on coronal rain—a phenomenon in which charged plasma cools and condenses along magnetic fields and creates spectacular magnetic displays in the corona. These drops in temperature within the corona lead to the formation of fiery and dense balls of plasma that heat up to a million degrees before cooling and falling towards the sun.

Lead author Patrick Antolin, Assistant Professor at Northumbria University, highlighted the significance of detecting coronal rain and the potential insights it provides into solar physics. He expressed excitement about observing shooting stars if humans could live on the sun’s surface, as most of these “shooting stars” seem to reach the solar surface intact.

Unique Close-Ups

The Solar Orbiter, launched in early 2020 by the European Space Agency, has provided astronomers with unprecedented close-up images of the corona, revealing small-scale phenomena never seen before. With its six ultraviolet imaging telescopes and other scientific instruments, it offers twice the spatial resolution compared to NASA’s Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO). The Solar Orbiter has also captured the first images of the sun’s north and south poles.

While NASA’s Parker Solar Probe gets closer to the sun than the Solar Orbiter, it lacks telescopes and cannot directly image the sun.

Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.

Denial of responsibility! TechCodex is an automatic aggregator of the all world’s media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, and all materials to their authors. For any complaint, please reach us at – [email protected]. We will take necessary action within 24 hours.