The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
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Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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This movie of the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona, was taken with the EUI instrument onboard Solar Orbiter on 23 February 2021. Working in its high cadence mode, the instrument returned an image every two seconds. The resulting movie is among the highest cadence observations of the solar corona ever recorded in the extreme ultraviolet. It shows a dynamic class of the miniature solar flares dubbed ‘campfires’ that shoot out jets of electrified gas, called plasma, at speeds of a hundred kilometres per second. They are difficult to spot, however, as the jets can be seen only for 10-20 seconds. They could play a key role in explaining how the corona is heated to a million degrees. Explaining this extreme temperature has been a focus for solar scientists for many decades.