Watch the stunning new video of the Sun through a spacecraft that's almost finished

The Solar Orbiter spacecraft has sent back the first video of the Sun from just two-thirds of the distance between Earth and the Sun.

Anyone who saw the solar corona with the naked eye for the first time during the recent total solar eclipse in North America might think they now know what the sun really looks like. However, as Solar Orbiter proves, our star looks much stranger.

Unique observations

Why the sun's outer atmosphere – the corona – is hotter than its surface is one of the great mysteries of solar science. Launched in 2020, the Cue Solar Orbiter has 10 scientific instruments that enable many unique observations. These include the first telescopic observations from close to the Sun, the first images of the Sun's north and south poles, and the first complete observation of the solar wind.

This new video shows the transition from the sun's lower atmosphere to the outer corona. In short: This is what the sun looks like up close. It shows:

• Hair-like structure made of charged gas (plasma) that follows the magnetic field lines coming from inside the Sun.
• Bright, hot regions (about a million degrees Celsius) and darker, cooler material that absorbs radiation.

The footage, taken on September 27 last year but released for the first time this week, comes from Solar Orbiter's Extreme Ultraviolet Imager instrument.

Incredible features

It is excellently labeled and shows some incredible features that are only visible on the Sun up close. In the lower left corner is the lacy coronal “moss”, while 10,000 km high gas spikes called “spicules” can be seen on the horizon. The latter comes from the Sun's chromosphere, the dark pink ring that was visible shortly after totality began and just before its end, during totality on April 8th.

Other features seen in the video include an Earth-sized eruption in the center (22 seconds into the video) and “coronal rain,” which are chunks of plasma falling back to the surface (30 seconds).

Designed and built in the UK by Airbus Defense & Space, the Solar Orbiter is a unique mission as it brings telescopes closer to the Sun than ever before.

I wish you clear skies and big eyes.