Solar explosion insights: ESA captures rare footage
The European Space Agency has released footage revealing what a solar flare looks like. The footage was captured as part of the Solar Orbiter mission in September 2024. Alongside the solar flare, radio waves are also emitted.
The European Space Agency highlights the fascinating phenomenon of the intense solar flare, which was recorded in the latter half of last year. The recording shows an explosion, followed by enormous amounts of energy being released, and the plasma being heated to millions of degrees Celsius within minutes, explains the ESA on Instagram. The Extreme Ultraviolet Imager camera captured the footage as part of the Solar Orbiter mission.
The occurrence of the significant solar flare is intriguing not only because of its temperature. Electrons are ejected into space, and further radio waves are emitted upon contact with other particles. The entire event is recorded by the probe and stored. Volunteers can sign up for the programme to "listen" to the explosions themselves. The ESA warns that some of the longest recordings of this nature can last several hours.
The ESA encourages participation in the Zooniverse project, in which anyone interested—regardless of academic credentials—can help analyse such data. This is an invaluable source of knowledge for scientists, which has often led to the discovery of new insights. According to Zooniverse, efforts focus on analysing data that cannot be effectively or easily examined by any means other than manually by humans, as it is the only way to obtain valuable data.
Solar Orbiter mission
The Solar Orbiter is a joint mission by the European Space Agency and NASA, aimed at studying the Sun in detail. The probe was launched into space on 9th February 2020. Its mission is to observe the Sun from closer distances than ever before, allowing for the acquisition of extremely detailed data. An example of this is the recording of a powerful explosion with energy release.
Thanks to the Solar Orbiter, scientists can better understand how the Sun affects space weather and Earth. The probe has advanced instruments that enable detailed studies of the heliosphere and solar cycles. For the first time, this mission allows scientists to image the solar poles, which is crucial for understanding the dynamics of our star.
