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.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
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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Solar Orbiter’s Metis instrument takes images of the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona, from 1.7 to 3 solar radii. It does this by artificially covering the Sun’s bright disc, similar to what happens in a total solar eclipse. This allows researchers to continuously monitor the behaviour of the corona, especially the way it flows outwards to create the solar wind.
This sequence of images shows the behaviour of the corona from 04:39 UT on 22 March 2022 to 04:02 UT on 23 March 2022. The right panel is an image processed version of the left image, which allows even more details in the corona to be seen.
Notable in this sequence is that the polar regions are dim. This is reminiscent of a ‘solar minimum’ magnetic field configuration on the Sun, when solar activity is low, and is not expected to last much longer. The Sun is currently ramping up for a peak in its activity levels, known as solar maximum, in 2025. Over the coming months and years, the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft will see these polar regions become brighter as the magnetic activity in the polar regions increases also.