New Delhi, India

Have you ever wondered what our fiery sun would look like close up? Don't worry, you won't have to make the perilous journey to the star to see that, as the European Space Agency (ESA) has recently shared a captivating and mind-boggling close-up of the Sun's surface.

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Mind-boggling video

The video was captured by the Solar Orbiter's Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI), and it offers an unprecedented close-up look at the dynamic activities on the Sun's surface. 

Recorded on September 27, 2023, this footage provides a detailed glimpse into the complex solar phenomena that play a crucial role in influencing space weather.

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"At the time, the spacecraft was at roughly a third of the Earth’s distance from the Sun, heading for a closest approach of 43 million km on 7 October," revealed ESA.

The spacecraft is scheduled for an even closer approach to the Sun in October, promising more detailed observations of our nearest star.

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Take a look here:

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The video, which is nearly a minute long, showcases various solar features in extraordinary detail. It shows delicate, feathery structures resembling hair, which are actually streams of plasma tracing the magnetic field lines from the Sun's lower atmosphere into the hotter outer corona. 

These visuals not only highlight the beauty of our star, but also the powerful forces at play.

"The brightest regions are around one million degrees Celsius, while cooler material looks dark as it absorbs radiation," explains the ESA.

Among the phenomena displayed are coronal moss, spicules, and coronal rain—each contributing uniquely to the Sun’s ecosystem. 

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Coronal moss also appears in the left corner of the footage as intricate, lace-like patterns.

"It usually appears around the base of large coronal loops that are too hot or too tenuous to be seen with the chosen instrument settings."

Spicules 'spires of gas', on the other hand, are depicted as towering spires of gas that extend approximately 10,000 km (6,214 miles) above the Sun’s chromosphere, resembling jets shooting from the solar surface. Coronal rain features in the video as high-density plasma clumps that descend back to the Sun, driven by gravity.

A particularly striking moment occurs around the 20-second mark, where a "small" eruption unfolds in the centre of the view. However, ESA warns, "Don’t be fooled by the use of 'small' here: this eruption is bigger than Earth!" 

(With inputs from agencies)