Scientists behind a Sun - keep investigation employ a wide-eyed hack to one of its tv camera , earmark them to peer into seldom seen neighborhood of the Sun ’s atmosphere .
Using Solar Orbiter ’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imager ( EUI ) , the squad of scientists behind the missionary work was capable to immortalize part of the Sun ’s atmosphere at extreme ultraviolet wavelength . The last - minute modification to the tool take add together a minor , pop “ quarter round ” to draw a blank the lustrous light coming from the Sun such that the fainter light of its ambiance could be made visible .
“ It was really a hack , ” Frédéric Auchère , an astrophysicist at the Institute of Astrophysics of the Université Paris - Sud in France , and a member of the EUI squad , said in astatement . “ I had the theme to just do it and see if it would crop . It is in reality a very simple qualifying to the instrument . ”
An ultraviolet image of the Sun’s corona as captured by the Solar Orbiter’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imager occulter.Image: NASA/ESA
EUI produces high - resolving power image of the anatomical structure in the Sun ’s atmosphere . The team behind the instrument summate a ovolo to a condom room access on EUI , which slides out of the mode to let light into the camera so it can capture images of the Sun . If the door hold back halfway , however , the thumb ends up shielding the bright luminosity coming from the Sun ’s disc in the essence so that the fainter ultraviolet brightness level coming from the Saint Ulmo’s light ( the outmost part of the atmosphere ) can be seeable .
The resultant role is an ultraviolet image of the Sun ’s Saint Ulmo’s fire . An ultraviolet image of the Sun ’s disk has been superimposed in the middle , in the area result blank by the thumb hack , agree to ESA .
The St. Elmo’s fire is usually hide by the bright luminousness of the Sun ’s surface , and can mostly be seen during a total solar occultation . The photographic camera hack sort of mimicker that same effect of the occultation by blocking out the Sun ’s light . The Sun ’s corona has long baffled scientists as it is much hot than the surface of the Sun with temperature reaching 1.8 million degree Fahrenheit ( 1 million point Celsius ) , one of the with child closed book surrounding our horde star .
“ We ’ve present that this works so well that you’re able to now consider a new character of instrument that can do both imaging of the Sun and the corona around it , ” Daniel Müller , ESA ’s Project Scientist for Solar Orbiter , said in a instruction .
ESA ’s Solar Orbiter found in 2020 with the intention of capturing images of the Sun at a snug distance than any other spacecraft and using six instrument to unscramble some of the star ’s mysteries .
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