This is the sun. Never before has the atmosphere of our star been seen so close, with swirls of gas, so long filaments and giant flares. Thanks for this great picture of Solar Orbiter, NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) probe Which also has Italian instruments on board.

Metis, the Italian machine

The most important is undoubtedly the Metis crown imaging device, which is the optical instrument that allows you to Simultaneous observation of the solar corona in the visible and ultraviolet bands, thus providing a highly detailed picture of the processes that govern the expansion of solar plasma into interplanetary space. Born out of a collaboration between the National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF), the University of Florence and Padua, the Institute of Photonics and Nanotechnology of the National Research Council (Cnr-Ifn) and an industrial consortium formed by OHB Italia and Thales Alenia Space Italia, Metis is funded and managed by the Italian Space Agency ( ASI).

favorite position

The photos were taken by the Solar Orbiter During the pass close to the sun on March 26thWhen the probe was only a third of the distance between the Earth and the sun. This mode allowed Metis to capture images of the solar corona in unprecedented detail, revealing a structure made of long filaments and highly dynamic plasma and magnetic fields.

new way

This is just a first step: observation opens the way for new research on the physical processes they identify Solar wind acceleration and impulsive phenomenawhich could have a potential impact on the prediction of geomagnetic storms and solar weather in general.