The Solar Orbiter, an international collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) launched in February 2020. Since then, it has acquired data that helps astronomers better understand the volatile solar surface and predict solar storms. Aided by its 10 state-of-the-art instruments, it is the most complex scientific laboratory sent by humankind to our nearest star. One of its biggest feats to date is having taken the widest high-resolution view of the sun ever achieved.
This history-making image combines 200 individual pictures taken in a four-and-a-half-hour period by the Solar Orbiter’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI). The final image shows how the sun’s corona—it’s million-degree hot atmosphere—looks in ultraviolet light. According to the ESA, the picture measures 12,544 x 12,544 pixels in size, while the sun alone, with a diameter of 1.4 million kilometers, occupies about 7,505 pixels.
The image size allows viewers to marvel at the sweeping, glowing formations that make up our star. As such, the ESA has even challenged the public to marvel at certain elements, such as the bright coronal loops around active regions and the somewhat-cooler filaments and prominences, recognizable by their darker shade.
“Obtaining such a detailed image is no easy feat,” writes the ESA. “On 9 March 2025, at around 77 million km from the sun, the Solar Orbiter spacecraft was oriented to point to different regions across the sun in a 5 x 5 grid. At each pointing direction, the [EUI] instrument captured six images at high resolution and two wide-angle views.”
This image joins the closest-ever photos of the sun, taken by NASA’s Parker Solar Probe in late 2024 as some of the most insightful astronomy images to be released as of late. “We are witnessing where space weather threats to Earth begin, with our eyes, not just with models,” says Nicky Fox, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA’s Washington headquarters, upon the release of these images. “This new data will help us vastly improve our space weather predictions to ensure the safety of our astronauts and the protection of our technology here on Earth and throughout the solar system.”
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