Giant Explosion in the Sun – What the Solar Orbiter Telescope “Saw”

The European Space Agency (ESA) announced that the Solar Orbiter solar observatory “saw” the largest solar “protrusion” to date, which was launched millions of kilometers into space.

Solar prominences are huge structures of magnetic field lines, which hold dense concentrations of solar plasma floating above the surface of the Sun and which are often associated with corona mass explosions.

This particular explosion, which occurred on February 15, fortunately did not target the Earth (otherwise it could cause problems), but “travels” away from our planet, as it was caused on the side of the Sun that does not “look” at the Earth.

The image of the phenomenon was made visible by the instrument of the Solar Orbiter telescope that operates in the ultraviolet part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Other solar space missions, such as NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, monitored the event.

The Solar Orbiter, a collaboration between ESA and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), will reach its orbit on March 26, at its closest point to the Sun, about 0.3 times the distance from Earth to the Sun.

According to ESA, “although this event did not send a burst of deadly particles to Earth, it is an important reminder of the unpredictable nature of the Sun and the importance of understanding and monitoring its behavior.”

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