We cannot look at the Sun this way every day. The ESA Solar Orbiter probe recorded plasma ejections from the solar corona at close range – thanks to this, our star resembles a fluffy ball. This amazing and mesmerizing sight can be seen in the video.
In the video recorded by ESA's Solar Orbiter mission, the Sun looks like a fluffy ball. The footage, released by the European Space Agency, shows hair-like structures of plasma following the magnetic field lines in the Sun's lower atmosphere as it passes into the much hotter outer layer, the corona. The video was taken from about one-third of the distance between Earth and the Sun on September 27, 2023, and ESA released it in early May.
Scientists reported that the brightest regions are about a million degrees Celsius, while cooler material appears darker because it absorbs radiation.
Amazing footage of the Sun
What gives the Sun its fluffy effect are peculiar structures resembling the moss we find on Earth, because they look like tiny parts of this plant. However, on the Sun, they are usually found around the center of sunspot groups, where magnetic conditions are strong and large coronal loops form.
Spicules, also called chromospheric splashes, are fountains of material visible on the solar horizon that protrude from the lower layer of the Sun's chromosphere. They can reach heights of up to 10,000 kilometers.
In the thirtieth second of the material, you can see coronal rain. This material is cooler than the rest of the Sun's surface (probably less than 10,000 degrees C) compared to 1 million degrees C in the coronal loops. The rain consists of denser clumps of plasma that fall back towards the Sun under the influence of gravity.
The corona of the Sun in the smallest detailESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/EUI Team
ESA, Universe Today, tvnmeteo.pl
Main photo source: ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/EUI Team