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Solar Orbiter: Sun probe’s first images reveal small ‘camp fires’
New pictures of the Sun taken just 77 million km (48 million miles) from its surface are the closest ever acquired by cameras
They come from the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter (SolO) probe, which was launched earlier this year.
- Jonathan Amos
- BBC
Among the UK-assembled craft’s novel insights are views of mini-flares dubbed “camp fires”.
These are millionths of the size of the Sun’s giant flares that are routinely observed by Earth telescopes.
Whether these miniature versions are driven by the same mechanisms, though, is unclear at this stage, says Dr…