First, there was a super-cool, one-hour time-lapse of the Sun. Now, there's the closest image ever taken of it—courtesy of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA).
Back in February, the two agencies launched the Solar Orbiter out into the abyss and the spacecraft just sent back the first photos it has snapped since—which were taken about 48 million miles away from the bright star.
"The first images are exceeding our expectations," said Daniel Müller, the Solar Orbiter Project Scientist at ESA, in an official statement. "We can already see hints of very interesting phenomena that we have not been able to observe in detail before. This makes us confident that Solar Orbiter will help us answer profound open questions about the Sun."
At this moment, the spacecraft is cruising around the Sun, adjusting its orbit in preparation for the mission's science phase (set to kick off in late 2021), during which the Solar Orbiter will "get as close as 42 million kilometres [about 26 million miles] from the Sun's surface, closer than the planet Mercury." By then, we'll be treated to crispier, sharper photos of the star.
"These amazing images will help scientists piece together the Sun’s atmospheric layers, which is important for understanding how it drives space weather near the Earth and throughout the solar system," said Holly Gilbert, the NASA project scientist for the mission in an official statement.
In addition to its scope, the project's grandiosity and the excitement surrounding it have to do with the conditions that the mission was launched in. In the middle of a world-wide pandemic, the staffs at both agencies have had to pivot their work setups to be able to manage critical operations remotely for the first time ever. Needless to say, they were able to do so successfully.
Below, check out an animation showing a series of views of the Sun captured by the spacecraft:
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