{"id":143592,"date":"2021-05-17T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-17T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/?migration=converted-node-471025"},"modified":"2023-07-26T16:08:07","modified_gmt":"2023-07-26T20:08:07","slug":"a-new-space-instrument-captures-its-first-solar-eruption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/missions\/stereo\/a-new-space-instrument-captures-its-first-solar-eruption\/","title":{"rendered":"A New Space Instrument Captures Its First Solar Eruption"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>For new Sun-watching spacecraft, the first solar eruption is always special.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On February 12, 2021, a little more than a year from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/press-release\/solar-orbiter-launch-takes-solar-science-to-new-heights\" rel=\"noopener\">its launch<\/a>, the European Space Agency and NASA\u2019s Solar Orbiter caught sight of this coronal mass ejection, or CME. This view is from the mission\u2019s SoloHI instrument \u2014 short for Solar Orbiter Heliospheric Imager \u2014 which watches the solar wind, dust, and cosmic rays that fill the space between the Sun and the planets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s a brief, grainy view: Solar Orbiter\u2019s remote sensing won\u2019t enter full science mode until November. SoloHI used one of its four detectors at less than 15% of its normal cadence to reduce the amount of data acquired. Still, a keen eye can spot the sudden blast of particles, the CME, escaping the Sun, which is off camera to the upper right. The CME starts about halfway through the video as a bright burst \u2013 the dense leading edge of the CME \u2013 and drifts off screen to the left.<\/p>\n\n\n<div id=\"\" class=\"hds-media hds-module wp-block-image\"><div class=\"margin-left-auto margin-right-auto nasa-block-align-inline\"><div class=\"hds-media-wrapper margin-left-auto margin-right-auto\"><figure class=\"hds-media-inner hds-cover-wrapper hds-media-ratio-none \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/fig1_solohi_optimized_gif.gif\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"750\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/fig1_solohi_optimized_gif.gif?w=800\" class=\"attachment-2048x2048 size-2048x2048\" alt=\"view of SoloHIs first solar eruption\" style=\"transform: scale(1); transform-origin: 50% 50%; object-position: 50% 50%; object-fit: cover;\" block_context=\"nasa-block\" loading=\"eager\" \/><\/a><\/figure><figcaption class=\"hds-caption padding-y-2\"><div class=\"hds-caption-text p-sm margin-0\">The first coronal mass ejection, or CME, observed by the Solar Orbiter Heliospheric Imager (SoloHI) appears as a sudden gust of white (the dense front from the CME) that expands into the solar wind. This video uses difference images, created by subtracting the pixels of the previous image from the current image to highlight changes. The missing spot in the image on the far right is an overexposed area where light from the spacecraft solar array is reflected into SoloHI\u2019s view. The little black and white boxes that blip into view are telemetry blocks \u2013 an artifact from compressing the image and sending it back down to Earth.<\/div><div class=\"hds-credits\"><strong><em>Credits: ESA & NASA\/Solar Orbiter\/SoloHI team\/NRL<\/em><\/strong><\/div><\/figcaption><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<p>For SoloHI, catching this CME was a happy accident. At the time the eruption reached the spacecraft, Solar Orbiter had just passed behind the Sun from Earth\u2019s perspective and was coming back around the other side. When the mission was being planned, the team wasn\u2019t expecting to be able to record any data during that time.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBut since we planned this out, the ground stations and the technology have been upgraded,\u201d said Robin Colaninno, principal investigator for SoloHI at the US Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. \u201cSo we actually got more downlink time for the mission than what was originally scheduled.\u201d So SoloHI winked on \u2013 and caught its first CME.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two more imagers on Solar Orbiter \u2013 ESA\u2019s Extreme Ultraviolet Imager and Metis \u2013 also captured views of the CME. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esa.int\/Science_Exploration\/Space_Science\/Solar_Orbiter\/Solar_Orbiter_images_first_coronal_mass_ejections\" rel=\"noopener\">Read more for ESA\u2019s coverage of the event.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>NASA\u2019s STEREO-A spacecraft, short for Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory, also caught a glimpse from its COR2 detector, which blocks out the Sun\u2019s bright disk to see otherwise faint phenomena in the solar wind.<\/p>\n\n\n<div id=\"\" class=\"hds-media hds-module wp-block-image\"><div class=\"margin-left-auto margin-right-auto nasa-block-align-inline\"><div class=\"hds-media-wrapper margin-left-auto margin-right-auto\"><figure class=\"hds-media-inner hds-cover-wrapper hds-media-ratio-none \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/fig2_stereo-a_cor2_cme.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/fig2_stereo-a_cor2_cme.gif?w=1024\" class=\"attachment-2048x2048 size-2048x2048\" alt=\"STEREO-As view of the CME\" style=\"transform: scale(1); transform-origin: 50% 50%; object-position: 50% 50%; object-fit: cover;\" block_context=\"nasa-block\" \/><\/a><\/figure><figcaption class=\"hds-caption padding-y-2\"><div class=\"hds-caption-text p-sm margin-0\">The first CME witnessed by Solar Orbiter\u2019s Solar Orbiter Heliospheric Imager, as seen from NASA\u2019s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory-A spacecraft<\/div><div class=\"hds-credits\"><strong><em>Credits: NASA\/STEREO\/COR2<\/em><\/strong><\/div><\/figcaption><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Back on Earth, NASA\u2019s Moon to Mars Space Weather Analysis Office modeled the CME to trace its trajectory through the solar system. The positions of Solar Orbiter, marked with a red diamond, and STEREO-A, a red square, reveal their different vantage points.<\/p>\n\n\n<div id=\"\" class=\"hds-media hds-module wp-block-image\"><div class=\"margin-left-auto margin-right-auto nasa-block-align-inline\"><div class=\"hds-media-wrapper margin-left-auto margin-right-auto\"><figure class=\"hds-media-inner hds-cover-wrapper hds-media-ratio-none \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/fig3_m2m_solohi_cme_enlil_model.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/fig3_m2m_solohi_cme_enlil_model.gif?w=960\" class=\"attachment-2048x2048 size-2048x2048\" alt=\"Three animations show material flowing out from the Sun into space. On the left, a circular plot shows a blob of green material moving away from the Sun, represented as a white circle in the center, toward the top. At center, a semicircular plot shows blobs of green material moving from the Sun toward Earth, represented as a yellow circle on the right. On the right, a vertical rectangular plot shows green blobs of material streaming up from the bottom toward a yellow circle representing Earth.\" style=\"transform: scale(1); transform-origin: 50% 50%; object-position: 50% 50%; object-fit: cover;\" block_context=\"nasa-block\" \/><\/a><\/figure><figcaption class=\"hds-caption padding-y-2\"><div class=\"hds-caption-text p-sm margin-0\">Animations show the modeled path of the CME observed by SoloHI on February 12, 2021. The plot on the far left shows the Sun as a white circle in the center, and the inner planets and some spacecraft appear in their positions in orbit. The center and right panels show different angles of the same model, focusing on Earth.<\/div><div class=\"hds-credits\"><strong><em>Credits: NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center\/M2M\/CCMC<\/em><\/strong><\/div><\/figcaption><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<p>NASA spacecraft have been watching CMEs for decades, but Solar Orbiter is still a game-changer. \u201cWe\u2019ve realized in the last 25 years that there\u2019s a lot that happens to a CME between the surface of the Sun and Earth,\u201d said Colaninno. \u201cSo we\u2019re hoping to get much better resolution images of all of these outflows by being closer to the Sun.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Solar Orbiter has already taken <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/feature\/goddard\/2020\/solar-orbiter-returns-first-data-snaps-closest-pictures-of-the-sun\/\" rel=\"noopener\">the closest picture of the Sun<\/a> to date, and it will only get closer. Solar Orbiter\u2019s official mission begins in November, when SoloHI and the rest of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/content\/solar-orbiter-instruments\" rel=\"noopener\">remote-sensing instruments <\/a>will be switched on in full science mode. Stay tuned!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>By <\/em><\/strong><a href=\"mailto:miles.s.hatfield@nasa.gov\"><strong><em>Miles Hatfield<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/nasa.gov\/goddard\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><em>NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong><em>, Greenbelt, Md.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For new Sun-watching spacecraft, the first solar eruption is always special. On February 12, 2021, a little more than a year from its launch, the European Space Agency and NASA\u2019s Solar Orbiter caught sight of this coronal mass ejection, or CME. This view is from the mission\u2019s SoloHI instrument \u2014 short for Solar Orbiter Heliospheric [...]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":155,"featured_media":151617,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nasa_hds_core_meta_l10n":"en-US","nasa_hds_core_meta_article_editor":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_article_contacts":[],"nasa_hds_core_meta_article_topic":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_linked_locations":[],"nasa_hds_core_meta_article_related_articles":[],"hds_migrate_meta_pr_release_id":"","hds_migrate_meta_pr_release_type":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_location_x":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_location_y":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_gallery_images":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[10796,2837,10739,2784],"news-tags":[],"internal-terms":[10596],"coauthors":[10299,10220],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"A New Space Instrument Captures Its First Solar Eruption","url":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/missions\/stereo\/a-new-space-instrument-captures-its-first-solar-eruption\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/missions\/stereo\/a-new-space-instrument-captures-its-first-solar-eruption\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/fig1_solohi_optimized_gif.gif?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/fig1_solohi_optimized_gif.gif"},"articleSection":"Science & Research","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Miles Hatfield"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Vanessa Thomas"}],"creator":["Miles Hatfield","Vanessa Thomas"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"NASA","logo":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/themes\/nasa\/assets\/images\/nasa-logo.svg"},"keywords":["Missions","STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory)","Coronal Mass Ejections","Heliophysics","Solar Orbiter"],"dateCreated":"2021-05-17T18:00:00Z","datePublished":"2021-05-17T18:00:00Z","dateModified":"2023-07-26T20:08:07Z"},"rendered":"<meta name=\"parsely-title\" content=\"A New Space Instrument Captures Its First Solar Eruption\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-link\" content=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/missions\/stereo\/a-new-space-instrument-captures-its-first-solar-eruption\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-type\" content=\"post\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-image-url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/fig1_solohi_optimized_gif.gif?w=150&h=150&crop=1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-pub-date\" content=\"2021-05-17T18:00:00Z\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-section\" content=\"Science & Research\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-tags\" content=\"Missions,STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory),Coronal Mass Ejections,Heliophysics,Solar Orbiter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-author\" content=\"Miles Hatfield\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-author\" content=\"Vanessa Thomas\" \/>","tracker_url":"https:\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/nasa.gov\/p.js"},"read_time":3,"time_ago":"3 years","featured_image":{"id":151617,"file":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/fig1_solohi_optimized_gif.gif","title":"fig1_solohi_optimized_gif","alt":"A grainy, black-and-white animation shows what looks like black and white waves of material streaming and at one point bursting from the upper right corner toward the left side of the screen. Small black and white squares occasionally appear near the bottom of the screen.","caption":"The first coronal mass ejection, or CME, observed by the Solar Orbiter Heliospheric Imager (SoloHI) appears as a sudden gust of white (the dense front from the CME) that expands into the solar wind. This video uses difference images, created by subtracting the pixels of the previous image from the current image to highlight changes. The missing spot in the image on the far right is an overexposed area where light from the spacecraft solar array is reflected into SoloHI\u2019s view. The little black and white boxes that blip into view are telemetry blocks \u2013 an artifact from compressing the image and sending it back down to Earth."},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143592"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/155"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143592"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":349672,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143592\/revisions\/349672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143592"},{"taxonomy":"news-tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-tags?post=143592"},{"taxonomy":"internal-terms","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal-terms?post=143592"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=143592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}