Searching for solar jets

An image of the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona, taken with the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument onboard Solar Orbiter.

This particular image was taken by EUI’s High Resolution Imager working at the extreme ultraviolet wavelength 17.4 nm (HRIEUV). Taken on 23 February 2021, this image shows 384x384 thousand kilometres of the solar surface. For comparison the diameter of the Earth is 12.7 thousand kilometres.

On 23 February 2021, the Sun’s activity was quiet but HRIEUV still captured comparatively small-scale jet activity on the Sun. This dynamic activity is associated with the so-called campfires, which are miniature solar flares that scientists discovered on the Sun with the EUI instrument shortly after Solar Orbiter’s launch.