Science isn’t always comforting, folks. The “I have no idea” issues are many, and sometimes the problems are just weird. Our solar system just isn’t the nice, easy-to-understand, life-supporting place we might wish. Even our Sun likes to lash out occasionally.

In breaking news, the Solar Orbiter has observed the Sun undergoing a magnificent eruption. This event is pointed away from the Earth and poses no risk to us. This particular event is also scientifically just right in size to allow some cool new research to be done. Most events like this are either so large that we lose part of the event off the side of our detector or so small that the details are lost to the brightness of the Sun. According to the ESA: ...the prominence observed by Solar Orbiter is the largest ever event of its kind to be captured in a single field of view together with the solar disc, opening up new possibilities to see how events like these connect to the solar disc for the first time. At the same time, SOHO can provide complementary views to even larger distances.

The Sun is currently coming out of a quiet period, and in the next few years, we should be treated to more solar outbursts of various kinds. Let’s just hope all of them pose nicely for the cameras while pointing their high-energy particles away from the Earth.

More Information

ESA press release