![ESA Solar Orbiter Caught The Sun Blasting Solar Winds [VIDEO]](https://i0.wp.com/orbitaltoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/ESA-Solar-Orbiter.jpg?w=780&resize=780,470&ssl=1 "ESA Solar Orbiter Caught The Sun Blasting Solar Winds [VIDEO]")
New footage from the ESA Solar Orbiter reveals the ejection of winds from the Sun as charged particles leave our closest star. Despite the fact that this recording dates back to October 2022, it gives us an insight into how the Sun releases winds of charged particles that then form solar storms.
ESA Solar Orbiter’s Close View Of Solar Winds Leaving The Sun
On 10 February 2020, the ESA Solar Orbiter set out into space with the mission to observe the Sun and create a better understanding of it for humans. Every six months, this space vessel gets close to the Sun to better study its makeup and activities.
During one of these close flights to the Sun, the ESA Solar Orbiter was able to record charged particles exiting the Sun’s Corona. These solar winds are one of the major building blocks that help the formation of solar storms.
This new footage from the ESA Solar Orbiter might help researchers in their study to better understand the formation of solar storms. The impacts of solar storms can be felt by various equipment in orbit around the Earth.
Earth’s magnetosphere helps to protect our home planet from the effects of these solar winds that eventually form solar storms. If the magnetosphere weren’t in place, the Earth’s atmosphere would gradually deteriorate over time.
A better understanding of the nature and makeup of solar storms will help scientists to better protect equipment in outer space from its harmful rays. However, other factors make this footage from the ESA Solar Orbiter spectacular.
Why Is The ESA Solar Orbiter Footage Of Solar Wind Exiting The Sun Remarkable?
Taking to their official X page on 26 March 2025, the ESA was proud to share the solar wind footage with the public. But what exactly makes this footage of charged particles that can travel up to 1 million miles per hour special?
This footage was made possible by Metis, the ESA Solar Orbiter’s coronagraph. According to the ESA “Metis is currently the only instrument able to see the solar wind’s twisting dance.”
The agency adds that “No other imaging instrument can see — with a high-enough resolution in both space and time — the sun’s inner corona where this dance takes place.” So this is a one-in-a-million footage of our closest star revealing activities taking place at its Corona.
Metis can block out the intense brightness of the Sun, hence peering into the Corona. The only space vessel that might be able to do this will be the ESA Proba-3 mission, which is under development.
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