Incredible to see ☀️
On it's closest approach to the sun, known as perihelion, the Solar Orbiter gathered a haul of images on March 26.
One eye-catching feature captured by the spacecraft has been nicknamed “the hedgehog”. It stretches 25,000 kilometres across the Sun and has a multitude of spikes of hot and colder gas that reach out in all directions. Caroline Harper, head of space science at the UK Space Agency, said: “It’s hugely exciting to see these incredible images and footage; the closest we’ve ever seen of the Sun, captured during Solar Orbiter’s nearest pass so far.“We are already seeing some fascinating data being returned from the science instruments on board this UK-built spacecraft, bringing us closer to understanding how natural events on the Sun’s surface contribute to space weather.
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