SCIENTISTS RELEASE STUNNING PICTURE TAKEN REALLY CLOSE TO THE SUN

 THE MORE YOU ZOOM IN, THE MORE INCREDIBLE IT BECOMES.

Sun Spotting

The European Space Agency has revealed an outstanding image captured by its Solar Orbiter, a sophisticated spacecraft built to examine the Sun from a much closer distance than Earth - and it's pretty amazing.

You can see a zoomed-out version of the image below, but the full-resolution version is worth clicking here to appreciate the image's absolute beauty. What's that teeny-tiny dot in the upper right corner? Yes, that is a scale model of the entire Earth.

#ICYMI Zoom in and explore the incredible detail of our home star, courtesy of #SolarOrbiter @EuiTelescope 🤩 https://t.co/2vOYZ7aw92 #WeAreAllSolarOrbiters #ExploreFarther pic.twitter.com/MpDFZW2PJD

— ESA's Solar Orbiter (@ESASolarOrbiter) March 27, 2022

Enhance! Enhance!

The final image was created by stitching together 25 distinct photos collected by the Solar Orbiter's Extreme Ultraviolet Imager instrument while the spacecraft passed directly between the Earth and the Sun, according to the ESA. At the moment, the probe was about midway between Earth and our star.

According to the organisation, the collected data could lead to a breakthrough in scientific knowledge of eruptions on the surface of our star and how they link to events occurring deeper within the solar atmosphere.

To the layperson, though, the image is simply a magnificent reminder of the star we all orbit's beauty, intricacy, and raw force.