Solar Orbiter has returned spectacular imagery of the Sun during its first close encounter with our home star.
Detailed new footage taken from within the orbit of planet Mercury shows a curious solar ‘hedgehog’, which stretches 25,000 kilometres across the Sun and has a multitude of spikes of hot and colder gas that reach out in all directions.
Solar Orbiter’s mission will allow scientists to better understand space weather forecasting from Earth.
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