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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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Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
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Science & Exploration
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
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Enabling & Support
Making space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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Coronal hole in the Sun
This movie was created from observations taken by the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft on 30 March 2022 between 04:30 and 04:55 UTC, and was previously released last year.
It shows a ‘coronal hole’ near the Sun’s south pole. Subsequent analysis revealed many tiny jets being released during the observation. They show up as little flashes of bright light across the image. Each one expels charged particles, known as plasma, into space.
These jets could be the source of the solar wind, the constant outflow of charged particles that comes from the Sun and flows through the Solar System.
Magnetic structures known as coronal holes are a source region of the solar wind. The holes are places where the Sun’s magnetic field does not turn back down into the Sun. Instead, the magnetic field stretches deep into the Solar System. It could be that the tiny jets discovered in these observations launch the plasma that feeds the solar wind, as they travel away from the Sun.
The circle indicates the size of the Earth for scale.
