Watch Solar Wind Whirl from The Sun | European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter
Aside from sunlight, the Sun sends out a gusty stream of particles called the solar wind. The European Space Agency-led Solar Orbiter mission is the first to capture on camera this wind flying out from the Sun in a twisting, whirling motion. The solar wind particles spiral outwards as if caught in a cyclone that extends millions of kilometers from the Sun.
Solar wind rains down on Earth's atmosphere constantly, but the intensity of this depends on solar activity. More than just a space phenomenon, solar wind can disrupt our telecommunication and satellite navigation systems.
Solar Orbiter is on a mission to uncover the origin of the solar wind. It uses six imaging instruments to watch the Sun from closer than any spacecraft before, complemented by in situ instruments to measure the solar wind that flows past the spacecraft.
This video was recorded by the spacecraft's Metis instrument between 12:18 and 20:17 Central European Summer Time (CEST) on October 12, 2022. Metis is a coronagraph: it blocks the direct light coming from the Sun's surface to be able to see the much fainter light scattering from charged gas in its outer atmosphere, the corona.
Metis is currently the only instrument able to see the solar wind's twisting dance. No other imaging instrument can see—with a high enough resolution in both space and time—the Sun's inner corona where this dance takes place.
Solar Orbiter is a space mission of international collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA, operated by ESA.
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter
Duration: 43 seconds
Release Date: March 26, 2025
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