Witness a breathtaking image of the sun's corona taken by the Solar Orbiter spacecraft.
Five years into its mission, the Solar Orbiter has once again amazed us with a detailed image of the Sun. This view shows the Sun’s atmosphere, known as the corona, which has a temperature of millions of degrees and is visible in ultraviolet light.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has captured a remarkable new image of the Sun through its Solar Orbiter mission. This image reveals the corona, which can reach temperatures as high as 72 million degrees Fahrenheit, making it hotter than the surface of the Sun.
To create the mosaic, Solar Orbiter took 200 individual images of the Sun, which were then assembled into what is now the broadest high-resolution image of the Sun ever recorded. These images display the intense gas that makes up the Sun’s outer atmosphere, which extends millions of miles beyond its surface.
“Capturing such an intricate image is quite challenging,” stated ESA. “On March 9, 2025, when the Solar Orbiter was approximately 77 million km from the Sun, the spacecraft was positioned to capture various regions of the Sun using a 5 x 5 grid. At each angle, the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) gathered six high-resolution images and two wide-angle views.”
In the full image, you can observe details such as the yellow arcs emanating from the Sun's surface, produced by its magnetic fields. These are known as coronal loops, appearing above the most active areas of the Sun, where the magnetic fields are strongest. These fields influence the streams of charged particles emitted by the Sun, also forming structures like streamers and plumes.
Additionally, the image reveals dark sunspots and filament structures made up of cooler material in the Sun’s atmosphere, which can persist for days or weeks.
Launched in 2020, Solar Orbiter has conducted several close encounters with the Sun, capturing breathtaking images of its surface through the EUI, which operates in the ultraviolet spectrum, beyond the visible light range.
The image, also taken in ultraviolet, provides details of the Sun’s upper atmosphere. It boasts a size of 12,544 x 12,544 pixels, and on ESA’s website, you can find a zoomable version with highlighted key features.
Georgina has been a space writer for Digital Trends for six years, focusing on topics like human space exploration and planetary science.
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Witness a breathtaking image of the sun's corona taken by the Solar Orbiter spacecraft.
The Solar Orbiter mission from the European Space Agency (ESA) has captured a breathtaking high-resolution image of the sun's upper atmosphere.